Paul Trejo

Gil, I think we need to sharply distinguish between Oswald as the confessed shooter at Walker on 4/10/1963 and Oswald as the accused shooter at JFK on 11/22/1963. Walker knew that Oswald was his April shooter -- and he said so many times. He never divulged who told him that Oswald was the shooter -- but he hinted several times that it was somebody in a very high position. Sometimes he said it was the Dallas Police. Sometimes he said it was a Lieutenant. Sometimes he just said it was friends he had in Dallas. But Walker had other information, as well. He believed strongly that there were two shooters on April 10, 1963, because he trusted his long-time neighbor who was an eye-witness. In his rage against the Kennedys and everything liberal in politics, he imagined that the Kennedys were trying to kill him, and that they were using Oswald for this, as well as others inside the CIA. This comes from his own pen over the course of many decades. Now -- this is not the same story that the Warren Commission told. Walker is not agreeing with the Warren Commission when he says that Oswald killed Kennedy. Walker is promoting his own theory, and he is also accusing the Warren Commission of lying. Walker hated the Warren Commission because he loathed and detested Earl Warren personally. So, Walker is not trying to say that the Warren Commission is correct. But he did agree with part of their conclusion -- that Oswald the Communist killed JFK. Walker sharply disagreed with the idea that Oswald was a "Lonely Loner". Oswald was part of a plot; not only to kill JFK, but also to kill Walker in 4/10/1963. Walker also believed that Oswald's handlers included the CIA and RFK himself. He believed it was ironic that the person RFK hired to kill Walker turned out to kill JFK. Walker took things very personally. He was a military officer in WW2 and the Korean War, and he was in many, many very deadly battles where hundreds and thousands were killed. Walker was nobody to trifle with. When he found out (probably from the FBI, who learned it from Mr. and Mrs. Igor Voshinin on 4/14/1963, who learned it from George DeMohrenschildt the same day) Edwin Walker immediately contacted his military buddies and they planned a way to get even with this bothersome Lee Harvey Oswald. These military buddies -- retired and non-retired -- had been looking for a patsy for their many, many plots. Harry Dean tells us explicitly that he was an eye-witness to meetings in Covina, California where some of these hot-headed rightists laughed when they selected Oswald as the patsy in mid-1963. So -- the bullet didn't really matter. For what it's worth, the Dolph Briscoe Center has two photographs of Walker's bullet, so it does exist somewhere (probably Walker's nephew, George Walker still has it). But Walker was not trying (like the Warren Commission) to match the April 10th bullet with the November 22nd bullet. Just the opposite. Walker was trying to prove to the American people that Oswald never acted ALONE. Instead, it was "leftists" in the CIA, and Communists generally, who worked with Oswald to damage the U.S.A. Walker and all his rightist pals wanted to prove this because they hoped that the U.S.A. would get angry enough to invade Cuba, at long last. That was Walker's entire plan -- and the same applies to all his co-conspirators; all these rabid, aging right-wingers (corrupt as they could be with alcohol, drugs and wild parties every weekend) wanted one thing only -- to mobilize America to invade Cuba. That was the main, number one reason that JFK was killed in the first place, IMHO. But if the Warren Commission's fiction about a "Lonely Loner" was promoted, then the U.S.A. would have no motive to invade Cuba, only to feel sorry for the Oswalds. So you see, Gil, that Walker's objection to CE 573 being the bullet actually plays a role in Walker's own personal involvement in the conspiracy. Walker never believed that the JFK case relied on the April 10th shooting. Instead, Walker believed that Oswald's participation in the April 10th shooting (along with the other guys that RFK allegedly hired to kill Walker) was the very reason that taking the matter into his own hands was reasonable, justified and the patriotic thing to do. I'm glad, Gil, that we can agree that the JFK conspiracy was first and foremost a Dallas-based conspiracy. Yes, it had a lot of support from inside the Federal Government, simply because there were many, many retired military men with contacts and influence throughout the Government who were solidly on General Walker's side. I'm glad, also, that we can agree that the FBI was involved at a very early date. Even if it only meant that Hoover and his boys only looked the other way, that is, that they silently watched it all unfold before their very eyes, then they were accessories. We agree 100% that Hoover had to hide that the FBI let it happen. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

OK, Jim, thanks for the clarification. I misunderstood one of your replies in this thread. That information actually came from a thread in the Education Forum, years ago, from Gerry Hemming himself. Although he was a bit cryptic in his replies, Hemming was willing to share whatever he could without compromising his friends who still live in the para-military underworld. Taking Hemming's word that he once saw ex-General Walker at the Lake Pontchartrain training camp for Cuban Exiles (courtesy RFK), I am tempted to combine his claim with Harry Dean's claim that he himself sat in mid-1963 meetings with ex-General Walker and Congressman Rousselot at an exclusive John Birch Society meeting in Covina, California, where the patsification of Lee Harvey Oswald was the topic of conversation. Lake Pontchartrain was the sandbox of Guy Banister and David Ferrie. These were the keepers of Oswald during the summer of 1963. On a different occasion, David Atlee Phillips claimed that he saw Lee Harvey Oswald at Lake Pontchartrain. All right -- so putting them all together, we find the ex-General Walker in the middle of Oliver Stone's JFK plot (taken from Jim Garrison). The pieces fit, IMHO. Here at the ground level -- not high-level theory -- we see the contours of a right-wing conspiracy. But it's the ground-level details that are important -- not more abstract theory. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

John, thanks for the kind remarks. As for the Ole Miss period, it merits a movie, IMHO. Here was JFK struggling with the Cuban Missile Crisis, and all of a sudden Ole Miss breaks out in race riots. What was worse, General Walker invited "thousands" of protestors from all over the USA to descend upon Ole Miss. A few thousand actually did drive in -- mostly students from Southern universities. These were the troublemakers. Since Walker used the radio to call all these students into Mississippi, and they probably would not have been there except for Walker's call, JFK and his staff were ready to hold Walker accountable for any violence. Also, there are two opposite accounts of Walker's role in the riots. Some say Walker led the riots. Others say Walker shook his head and went home early. The truth can be told by news film taken of the riots, but today the National Archives still withholds such film on FOIA technicalities. Why? The point is that Walker had many followers in 1962. Perhaps two million voting Americans knew him and respected him. Also, since he was a World War Two war hero and a former General, the Pentagon also knew him and liked him. So JFK could not just treat him unkindly. The proof is that after RFK had Walker locked up in an insane asylum following the Ole Miss riots, pending a six week psychiatric evaluation, Walker was out on the street after only five days, and was now a martyr for the right-wing, who now claimed that Psychiatry was Communist plot, and used lobotomy and electroshock to turn people into Communists. The famous Thomas Szasz joined the right-wing in this protest. So did the ACLU. The Kennedy Administration had to back-pedal as fast as they could. The last thing they wanted was to make Walker a martyr. All charges were dropped in a few weeks when the Walker version (he went home early) was told to the judge. Case closed. I don't know about others, but I want to see that NARA film today. Also, John, as for the story about Walker's driver -- no, that was not in the Overseas Weekly articles of 16Apr61 that got Walker into so much trouble with the Army. The main charge that stuck was that Walker tried to influence his soldiers to vote his way in the Congressional elections. I have not yet encountered any story about Walker's driver. Anything you can share about that would be very interesting to me. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Harry Dean reminded me yesterday to correct this error. Although the Spartacus blurb on Harry identifies Angelo and Leopoldo as Loren Hall and Eladio del Valle, as I carelessly repeated, Harry Dean himself, in his Ms/book, says that the two were Loran Hall and Alonzo Escuirdo whose alias was 'Laurence Howard.' To repeat: The Angelo and Leopoldo who took Lee Harvey Oswald to visit Sylvia Odio in late September, 1963, were actually Lorenzo Pacillo (alias Loran Hall) and Alonzo Escuirdo (alias Laurence Howard). Harry Dean knew these two Cuban Exiles as Loran Hall and Laurence Howard (i.e. both aliases bore the initials, L.H.). Dean would sometimes refer to them by their alias last names, as simply, 'Hall and Howard.' According to Harry Dean, 'Hall and Howard' had a close relationship with former Major General Edwin A. Walker. Whenever General Walker visited the John Birch Society in Covina, California, he would often meet with 'Hall and Howard' along with Harry Dean, Congressman John Rousselot, Guy Gabaldon and other select and exclusive members of the JBS and Minutemen organizations. Harry Dean recalls specific JBS meetings in which Walker, Rousselot, Hall, Howard, Gabaldon and Dean laid the plans to frame LHO, who was presented to the group as a communist. Film of Oswald in New Orleans that summer (and possibly the Jack Martin film) was particularly damning of Oswald. So, I thank Harry Dean for that correction. It goes far towards answering my question about the activities of General Walker in mid-1963, and his relationship with Lee Harvey Oswald before 11/22/1963. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Well, John, I would like to see this thread revived as well. For one thing, this email address that you shared seven years ago is no longer in service. Do you happen to have an up-to-date email address for Larrie Schmidt? The link between Larrie Schmidt and General Edwin Walker is very tight -- but I don't think this thread has nailed it so far. Dick Russell's book (TMWKTM) is so far the most ample source on Larrie Schmidt, and it is fascinating. The most fascinating thing is the story from Larrie's brother, Bob Schmidt, who worked for General Walker as a chauffer, and when all of the CUSA members scattered upon the assassination of JFK, Bob Schmidt was hunted down and then confessed that he and Larrie had joined Lee Harvey Oswald on 10Apr63 to shoot at General Walker through his living room window. If that story is true - then I think we have a much deeper link between Walker and Oswald than ever before. Walker knew something about Oswald that he never told anybody. According to Harry Dean, Walker chose Oswald to be the patsy in his conspiracy to kill JFK. (Now, there were many conspiracies to kill JFK, as Gerry Patrick Hemming told us; however, the only one that was successful, obviously, was the one that made Oswald into the patsy.) Walker denied ever hearing about Oswald until after 11/22/1963, but Harry Dean implies that Walker was lying. Not only that, but Walker actually contradicts himself several times in various articles and speeches he wrote, when he says that Oswald was arrested on 10Apr63, but released before midnight by the Kennedys orders, and that he was told this by people in privileged places. When Dick Russell personnally confronted Walker with Bob Schmidt's claim that he and Larrie joined Oswald to shoot at Walker, Walker's response was, "I was told that they were involved!" But Walker never volunteered that information to anybody before that final interview with Dick Russell. How many other secrets was this man harboring? Larrie Schmidt holds the ability to confirm Harry Dean's claim, in my opinion. I would really, really like to contact him and ask him some further questions about Lee Harvey Oswald and General Edwin Walker. Best regards, --Paul Trejo, MA

Jim, I agree half-way -- Walker's later career is very difficult to track - almost as if he was covering his tracks. I can't agree that his earlier career is more interesting, though. It is out in the open as any war hero's career is out in the open. It is interesting, but I'm more interested in the hidden and the intriguing, especially where the assassination of JFK may be involved. I'd like to reflect on the results of this thread in the past month or so. What do I still hope to find? Taking cues from Jack Ruby, Frank Ellsworth (ATF), Dick Russell, Ron Lewis and Harry Dean (FBI) and anybody else who suspects that General Walker and the John Birch Society were at the head of a plot to assassinate JFK, I hope to find additional evidence. The thread I would pursue would be a sentence from Walker's first speech after he quit the military in November, 1961. In December, 1961, Walker addressed the National Indignation Committee of Dallas, Texas, in perhaps his best speech, "Who Muzzled the Military?" Part of that speech was filmed, and the sentence I have in mind was filmed. The sentence is: "Of all our defeats in the Cold War, the capture of Cuba by the Communists is the most unacceptable!" <see Youtube link below>. Whatever his faults, General Walker was sincere; he believed in his heart that Kennedy's failure to reverse the Cuban Red Revolution was proof of Presidential Communist tendencies. He was also somewhat paranoid of the Kennedys after his horrible psychiatric experience of late 1962. After somebody tried to shoot him in his living room in Dallas on April 10, 1963, Walker suddenly fell silent. Years of public speaking suddenly stopped and we hear nothing more from him until late October, 1963, when he attacks Adlai Stevenson for daring to promote the United Nations in Dallas on 10/25/1963. So - what was General Walker doing between 4/10/1963 and 10/24/1963? That's what I'm struggling to find out. Let's focus on the testimony of Harry Dean, who belongs to this Forum, who said in very clear terms that he sat in the same room with General Walker and Congressman John Rousselot at a John Birch Society meeting in Los Angeles County in mid-1963, and Walker was directing plans to make Lee Harvey Oswald into the patsy of a plot to kill JFK. Harry Dean clearly says that money was produced at this meeting, to be given to a special contact in Mexico City in September, who would in turn divide the money amongst the mechanics and the patsy. That special person, he said, was the famous Guy Gabaldon, a Saipan war hero. I did some checking myself, and learned from another eye-witness in Los Angeles at the time, that the John Birch Society was indeed host to Guy Gabaldon and General Walker within the dates in question. Harry Dean further claims that along with Lee Harvey Oswald, there were two Cubans who were identified in this conspiracy, who went by the names Angelo and Leopoldo, and were also known as Loran Hall and Eladio del Valle. Any fanatic who demanded the destruction of Communism in Cuba in those days could be counted on to act upon that faith at any cost. Associating with like-minded fanatics would help to guarantee the Cause. Gerry Patrick Hemming told Jim Root that he saw General Walker in Lousiana, at Lake Pontchartrain, a training ground for militant Cuban-Exiles that was organized by operated by Guy Banister and David Ferrie. This was operated with the full knowledge of the FBI, the CIA and even the White House (despite cross-orders which were intended to keep such actities hyper-secret). My point is that Walker was there -- in Louisiana -- with Banister and Ferrie during the summer of 1963. Harry Dean gives us this testimony as an FBI operative. He reported this same testimony to the FBI as it occurred -- but the FBI denies any knowledge of Dean's report. The records are unavailable. I believe that if more attention were given to this line of research, more evidence would resurface, simply because the truth tends to resurface. That's my summary of this thread so far. Best regards, --Paul Trejo, MA P.S. Here's the Walker video from 10/10/1961

I want to share another interesting item from the Edwin Walker Archives at the Briscoe Center for American History. last week I shared a newsletter by General Walker dated September, 1983, entitled: TROJAN HORSE - USA. There is one sentence in particular that I want to highlight: -------------------- BEGIN ATTACHMENT --------------------------------- THE TROJAN HORSE -- USA Sept. 1983 <snip> * Attempted assassination by Lee H. Oswald, 9pm April 10, 1963, whose release from midnight custody was directed by the Kennedys before 7am -- he kills the President in November, the first time his name or stay in Russia (1959-62), was known to Walker, Germany (1959-61). <snip> -------------------------- END ATTACHMENT ----------------- Last week I pointed out the Big Myth of Edwin Walker claiming that Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested in Dallas on the night of April 10, 1963, when he allegedly took a pot-shot at General Edwin Walker sitting in his living room, working at his desk. Fine. But there's another clause in that letter -- it says about Lee Harvey Oswald, "he kills the President in November, the first time his name or stay in Russia (1959-62), was known to Walker, Germany (1959-61)." Now, we might think, "of course, Mr. Walker, nobody questioned that this was the first time you ever heard of Lee Harvey Oswald." Or did they? Actually, they did. And not somebody else, either -- it was General Walker himself who contradicted his own statement. This is what I'm uncovering at the Briscoe Center -- example after example of General Walker repeating this story again and again - but varying it a little bit each time. This is exactly what people do when they are lying. To illustrate my point, I will share another item I found at the Briscoe Center so far this year. It is Edwin Walker's letter to Senator Frank Church on June 23, 1975. So this is actually eight years before the line above was written. This is what Walker says; I will type in the entire letter: ---------------- BEGIN ATTACHMENT -------------- EDWIN A. WALKER June 23, 1975 Senator Frank Church US Senate Office Bld'g. Washington D.C. 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 ----------------- Look at the glaring contradiction. In 1975 he claims that the DPD informed him "within days" that they had Oswald in custody on the night of the shooting. Yet in the 1983 "Trojan Horse" letter, the same Edwin Walker claims that the day that JFK was killed in November, was "the first time his name or stay in Russia (1959-62), was known to Walker, Germany (1959-61)." So - we have evidence that Walker was lying from his very own typewriter. Now - which story is the truth? What parts of it are true and which are false? Are there partial truths? Why does Walker try to tell us details we aren't asking for? After saying in 1975 that the DPD told Walker about Oswald in April, 1963, Walker said in 1983 that November, 1963 was the first time "his name" was known to Walker. There's the lie. But wait, there's more. Why did Walker then give the dates that Oswald was in RUSSIA (1959-62) alongside the dates the Walker was in GERMANY (1959-61)? What possible relevance could that be to the topic at hand? It seems like a non-sequitur at first glance - like Walker simply rambling. HOWEVER - could it be, as Jim Root has already suggested, that Walker was directly involved in helping Oswald get into Russia? If so, this could be another example of a Walker's unconscious leakage of information that keeps whispering, "I was there! I was there! I was there!" Best regards, --Paul Trejo, MA

John, for the time being I will defer comment on your psychological interpretation of Walker, and propose my own developing psychological profile of Walker. If (and only if) Walker was gay, we know sociologically that in the USA in 1962 Walker lived 'in the closet' so to speak. He had to keep his gender preference a precious secret. As Jim Root suggested, anybody who discovered Walker's secret could easily blackmail him, simply because of American 1960's culture, especially in the Army. So, he lived a secret life. One must also wonder about Walker's emotional health (if he was gay) from a more vital perspective; because he also, at the same time, wanted to run for public office! He actually ran for Governor of Texas, for example (although he finished last in a field of six Democratic candidates). After all, if Eisenhower could be President, whom the great Douglas MacArthur had called a mere 'desk jockey', then surely a war hero like Edwin Walker could be Governor. I think Walker was continually running away from himself (which is close to what you're saying, John) and that is why he lived in a dream-world in which he could be Governor of Texas, and imagine that nobody would ask him why he never had a girl-friend. Furthermore, if Walker had actually won his bid to be Texas Governor, I have little doubt he would have run for President of the United States soon afterwards -- after all, he was much more heroic than that rich Irish kid in the White House, whose fibs about his U-boat adventures seemed to inspire a generation. Besides, that Irish kid was a Communist, and Walker was a Pro-Blue as they come. So, if (and only if) General Edwin Walker was gay, then he was probably using his Pro-Blue program as a screen to hide behind. And the closer anybody came to his secret, the louder he would promote his Pro-Blue program, and claim that his detractors must therefore be Communists. If anybody started asking questions or poking around Walker's secrets, Walker's most successful retort would be to investigate their sins, their shortcomings, their secrets, or better, like Joe McCarthy, just accuse them outright of being Communists and watch them run for the door! Walker's post-military philosophy seems fairly simple: attack others before they attack you. In the absence of information about Larrie Schmidt -- which is very, very difficult to obtain -- I will hazard another speculation, here: Larrie Schmidt was on the staff of the Overseas Weekly newspaper. Walker hated the Overseas Weekly for some reason. So, perhaps the reason that Walker and Schmidt (that is, the Taro Leaf and the Overseas Weekly) came to such a clash with each other was that Schmidt almost found out that Walker was homosexual. Walker changed the subject to a violent competition with Larrie Schmidt and his Overseas Weekly connection. Walker complained to as many superior officers as would listen, that the Overseas Weekly was a "subversive" newspaper, intent on making good Americans look bad to their German hosts. But nobody paid much attention to Walker's complaints. Walker objected to the bikini models that graced every fouth page of the Overseas Weekly, and he thought that people would listen when he said that was "immoral". Almost nobody would listen -- evidently very few misogynists served in the Army. Walker called the Overseas Weekly the Oversexed Weekly, and when a few of his sychophants repeated this, Walker spread the rumor that "many soldiers" are objecting to the "immorality" of the Overseas Weekly. But the Overseas Weekly staff stunned General Edwin Walker on April 16, 1961, when they accused General Walker of enforcing the indoctrination of the 24th Infantry Division with right-wing nut-country propaganda. This got the attention of the Pentagon, and the White House, and Walker was immediately instructed to step down and let somebody else Command the 24th until a proper investigation could be made. So, Larrie Schmidt won the first round. General Walker's career was over. If this was what the over-ground newspapers said openly about General Edwin Walker -- we can only imagine what the underground rumor mill said about General Walker. This scenario best explains -- in my humble opinion -- why General Walker would over-react to the slap on the hand that he received before his next big promotion. Walker, despite 30 years of brilliant service in two wars as a highly decorated Two-star General, decided to quit - to resign - and forfeit his retirement pension! It just makes no sense why anybody would do that -- it smacks of emotional instability. But those who encouraged him to do this -- i.e. H.L. Hunt and Billy James Hargis -- were famous people in Texas, and Walker was able once again to lose himself in their wild rodeo of ideas and intrigue. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Jim, as I believe Walker's Open Letter to JFK on 26Sep62 showed, Walker was also capable of harshly criticizing those in the highest offices. To emphasize my point, I want to share something I recently found in the Julia Knecht Collection of the Briscoe Center for American History. (Julia Knecht was General Edwin Walker's secretary.) On that very same day, 26Sep62, General Walker went on KYKH radio in Lousiana and delivered the following public broadcast advertisement, calling for a massive march against JFK's deployment of Federal Troops at Oxford University in Mississippi to enforce the law allowing a qualifying black American to attend a traditionally all-white college: ------------- BEGIN ATTACHMENT ----------- "Mississippi: It is time to move. We have talked, listened and been pushed around far too much by the anti-Christ Supreme Court! Rise...to a stand beside Governor Ross Barnett at Jackson Mississippi! Now is the time to be heard! Thousands strong from every State in the Union! Rally to the cause of freedom! The Battle Cry of the Republic! Barnett yes! Castro no! Bring your flag, your tent and your skillet. It's now or never! The time is when the President of the United States commits or uses any troops, Federal or State, in Mississippi! The last time in such a situation I was on the wrong side. That was in Little Rock Arkansas in 1957-1958. This time -- out of uniform -- I am on the right side! I will be there! Unconstitutional -- as it was in Little Rock in 1957-1958 -- there is no law for forced integration! Only the Congress could make it -- it has not! The 10th Amendment precludes rights reserved to States. Oaths have been abided -- up to 1933 -- by Presidents. The Monroe Doctrine is more than an expression of National Policy. It is an expression of unity in cause and purpose in the Union of States. Harboring or shielding communist Cuba in our midst is a direct threat to the State of the Union! Fulbright has said that there is no need for the public to know about our National Policy or Communism. Is this why? Who is mad at the wrong time? I hear no statements from him on Cuba. Where are all these liberals that are screaming about Military supremacy? Who is using the Military for his own supremacy? You don't have to be in uniform to be a dictator; or in this case, I would say your Commander-in-Chief has donned a uniform to establish a Military dictatorship! The liberals are frustrated! They are acting like rats on a sinking ship since Castro came aboard! --------------------- END ATTACHMENT --------------------- It seems to me, Jim, that one of the reasons that Walker quit the military (and forfeited his pension) was because he wanted to stop being a loyal foot-soldier taking orders from the likes of Eisenhower (whom Robert Welch 'demonstrated' was a full-fledged Communist) or especially the likes of JFK, who was widely regarded to be on the left of Eisenhower. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Thanks, Michael, for highlighting this historical document. Here's a quick summary for those new to this thread. In June, 1961, Senator J.W. Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote a 22-page letter to JFK and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (today called the "Fulbright Memorandum") complaining that official Military education programs promoted as Anticommunism [like the Pro-Blue program of General Walker] were widely being exposed as political partisan propaganda in the service of the radical right-wing. It's interesting, too, than in his testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Military Cold War Education, General Walker cited the Fulbright Memorandum as an example of the Liberal and neo-Communist attack on his "ultra" or "superpatriotism". Best regards, --Paul Trejo

I finally obtained a copy of that Open Letter of 26Sep62 by former General Edwin Walker to President Kennedy. I reproduce it here in full. (For ease of reading I placed each sentence in its own line and I marked the paragraph divisions with this marker "=*=".) Bear in mind that the very same day that Walker sent this to the White House, he also made an interstate broadcast on KWKH radio calling for a thousand patriots from every State in the Union to join him in Jackson, Mississipi, to angrily confront Federal Marshals and protest the forcible entrance of James Meredith into Oxford University. This was a red-letter day in the life of General Edwin Walker. --Paul Trejo <edit typos> ------------------------ BEGIN ATTACHMENT --------------------------- EDWIN A. WALKER 4011 TUTLE CREEK BLVD. DALLAS 19, TEXAS September 26, 1962 The President The White House Washington, D.C. Mr. President: It is obvious to millions of concerned and informed Americans that idle talk and rocking chair action can not cope with the Russian-Cuban threat. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, our highest military tribunal, have informed your administration that Cuba is a threat to the United States. The actions of the State Department are completely incompatible with military judgment and with our policy and traditions, upon which all freedom-loving countries rely for their protection and security. America is now the laughingstock of the world to both friend and foe. Our military men watch a German lad die -- with utter disgust for a policy of centralized Sovietized paralysis that censors their every move. There is widespread bewilderment throughout the nation at the audacity of Castro-Cuba and our obsequious policy of vying for favor in assisting our enemies, which is now realistically exposed and shorn of enchantment. =*= The Monroe Doctrine is more than an expression of National Policy. It is an expression of unity in cause and purpose in the Union of States. Harboring and shielding Communist Cuba in our midst is a direct threat to the State of the Union. Americans, civilian and military -- regulars, reserve, and guard, including state and local police -- are closely unified and oriented at the community level. They recognize demagogic power and action with centralized police state methods (as being used by Federal law enforcement agencies in Mississippi) as an internal policy which is corroborating and reciprocative in purpose with the enthronement and escalation of Moscows Cuba. =*= I will lay off Berlin if you will lay off Cuba is no doubt an expression of blackmail with which you are familiar from your early Summit meeting with a typical communist maestro. There is wide public concern for the freedom and custody of your office with possible resulting inhibitions in national policy and security. Public opinion can be right or wrong but nonetheless dangerous as reflected in the highly volatile, belated and moratory pronouncements of the Fulbright Memorandum. Public concern is not allayed or reduced by the sophisticated utterances of your associates and press. The UN has proved itself too deceptive and un-American in Cuba, Goa, the Congo and Laos to add one iota of confidence to a situation which you have described as Dire Peril. =*= I urge you now and in haste, in view of the steadily deteriorating situation and the ill will that bodes no good, to take such measures that will invoke the Monroe Doctrine and reassure the prevailing lack of confidence at home and abroad. This would establish a modicum of respect for America throughout the world. =*= If an aggressive economic and military blockade is not now made assuredly successful in its essential offensive quality, disposition and determination to free Cuba, a volatile and dangerous public opinion will reflect its angry mood toward losses to Communism throughout the entire world. Without a modicum of respect, such a mood could rebel in revulsive repudiation of its traditional bounds against the untraditional escalation of intrusive and compulsive accommodation. Respectfully, Edwin A. Walker --------------------- END ATTACHMENT -----------------

Jim, I place a high value on the testimony of GP Hemming, as awkward as it sometimes sounds. (He was protecting his friends, so he often had to mince words.) Insofar as GP Hemming sent you an email affirming your theory that Walker was a part of the team that infiltrated Oswald into the USSR in 1959, I will change my theory accordingly. Hemming's confirmation makes it easier to accept that General Edwin Walker supplied special information to Lee Harvey Oswald to help him quickly get a Visa for the USSR. Now, did I understand you correctly, Jim; did you say that GP Hemming himself had trained under Walker? This is startling to me. Did GP Hemming have an opinion for or against Walker? Pro-Blue? The 24th Infantry Division? The Overseas Weekly? Larrie Schmidt? General Charles Willoughby? The Deutsche NationalZeitung? Dr. Frey? Hemming's first-hand reports would be most interesting. When I get Walker's military records, I will seek that letter you cited from John J. McCloy about the man whose military career was sealed in concrete after 11/22/1963. I look forward to reading about Walker's additional triumphs in the Army. Since he was a Major General, I'm not surprised that Walker would attend General Staff programs regarding long-term US Cold War Strategies. We agree that Walker is a key figure in any complete theory of the planning of the JFK conspiracy. Now, you say that you don't believe that Walker was involved personally, and I admit that I have no solid evidence that links him -- yet. But I believe I found some circumstantial evidence in his archives. (I would enjoy telling you about that over time.) You do believe, Jim, that Walker knew that there was such a plot and that it was "orchestrated by the highest eschelons of power." But knowing about such a plot and not reporting it to the President makes Walker an accessory, doesn't it? You also believe, Jim, that Walker could have been implicated if Lee Harvey Oswald had gone to trial -- so that again suggests an accessory relationship at the very least. OK, let's look at some of your direct feedback to my proposals: (1.0) The Briscoe Center last year opened up 48 boxes from the Edwin Walker Collection. Also, this year they opened up a further 32 boxes from the Collection of Walker's secretary, Julia Knecht. That's 80 boxes total. I will briefly describe what I've seen so far. The boxes are still grocery boxes - large and clumsy. Possibly a quarter of their contents consists of newspaper clippings. Another quarter consists of fan mail. We also have the expected: scrap books from his World War II triumphs, and some memorabilia of his Korean battles. There are letters from his mother, also, and his family. It is in Julia Knecht's Collection that we find the many completed speeches that he would deliver nationwide, and the pamphlets for sale that were largely repetitions of his speeches. (In his personal boxes we have fragments of speeches in process, all marked up.) There are multiple copies of his court case aginst API, suing them for portraying him in a leading role in the Mississippi riots of 1962. (1.1) On the darker side, we find many issues of newsletters from racists and anti-Semites, e.g. Charles B. Hudson's newsletter, and two complete books by Hillman Holcomb, and sundry newsletters berating Negroes, with special attention to Martin Luther King and Malcom X. (1.2) There is next to nothing in the way of personal correspondence between Walker and Robert Welch, for example, or Billy James Hargis, or even his long-time benefactor, H.L. Hunt. I get the impression that the this large Collection has been sanitized over the years. (2.0) The Walter Lord Papers (from the Kennedy Center) contain a lot about General Walker and his Pro-Blue program. Lord's conclusion was that Walker considered Robert Welch to be a slow-moving piker in the game of Anticommunism, and in fact Walker had been building his Pro-Blue program for years before he implemented it in Germany. So, this apparently agrees with your research, too, Jim. (2.1) I have seen some letters revealing the worry of what would happen to Pro-Blue once Walker was removed from his Command in Augsberg. The Army assured Walker that Pro-Blue was not a problem at all -- it was officially not a JBS spin-off. But the reality of the matter was different -- without Walker the Pro-Blue program died on the vine. (2.2) In my reading, he believes he is being burned by the Kennedy Administration (not the CIA) and he is very certain about the reason why. Just as Joe McCarthy claimed in 1951, there have been Commuists in the White House since FDR. According to Robert Welch, Eisenhower was *certainly* a Communist. Therefore, Kennedy should be expected to behave like a Communist. And he did, according to General Walker and the extreme right-wing. (2.3) Jim, I am still unclear about your theory regarding how the Overseas Weekly investigation links in with Oswald's decision to return to the USA. General Walker writes a lot about the fall of his Pro-Blue program; he repeats that the Kennedy Administration (not the CIA) along with its brazenly open support of Communism was to blame - as expected, because the Communists were afraid of the super-warriors he would be creating with the Pro-Blue program. (2.4) Jim, we encounter a sharp break between our theories insofar as you see nothing suspicious in Walker's political beliefs. I agree that Walker was once a man who blindly (loyally) followed orders, period. That was in World War Two. In the Korean war, as he says in many places, his opinion changed because he was so frustrated with this "no-win" war. (2.5) In Korea, said Walker, Eisenhower supported the Communists by advancing then retreating, advancing then retreating. This is abnormal, and Walker just hated it. He made a promise to himself that he would never again sign up for a "no-win" war. (2.6) Walker's heart was in the World War Two era. Yet the Cold War was nothing at all like World War Two. This was where Walker (and millions like him) got confused. (2.8) In 1961 a new Military bulletin regarding Cold War education superseded the 1958 Military bulletin. He told Congress in 1962 that his Pro-Blue reading program was based on the 1958 Bulletin, and he insisted on following that, despite what the new Military bulletin said. So, he was no longer blindly obedient where Pro-Blue was concerned. (2.9) Also, when the Army gave him a promotion and assigned him to a Command in Hawaii in late 1961, he did not accept it. He said that it was only one step from Hawaii to Vietnam, and he swore he would never fight another "no-win" war. That was when he QUIT the Army. (2.10) Now, he could have retired with a full pension. He had served 30 years, and was a highly decorated General. It was nothing less than insolent for him to QUIT and renounce his Military Pension in protest. Protest of a promotion to a Command in Hawaii? (2.11) No - it was in protest of losing his Command of the 24th, and the Pro-Blue program that was so beautiful to Walker throughout 1960. (2.12) So, no, Jim. The Cold War against Communism was no ordinary War, and Walker was no foot soldier in the Cold War. He wanted to be a General in the Cold War, and to start calling the shots himself. He was prepared, he believed. To prove it, he would run for Governor of Texas. He believed (along with H.L. Hunt) that Douglas MacArthur should have been our next great President. He was convinced, along with H.L. Hunt and all extreme rightists, that the White House and State Department were secret Communsits. Therefore true loyalty to the USA meant smashing the power of the White House and the State Department. In 1962 the life of General Walker looked more and more like a scene from Doctor Strangelove. (2.13) And although the timing is perfect -- Oswald's return to the USA corresponds with the fall of the Pro-Blue program -- I still don't see a direct connection between the events, Jim. Perhaps you can clarify that for me. (3.0) Jim, your intereview of a Walker family friend in Kerrville, who suggested that Walker's father sent him to a military school to change his gender preference is core material for a historical biography. You can't just announce that and forget it. That's journalistic gold. (4.0) As for the 'burning' of Walker in 1961, I am interested in the conspiratorial side of things. The Anti-Semitic literature that Walker kept in his possession (as found in his archives) suggests that he also might have turned by his association with ex-Nazi Germans in Augsberg from 1959-1961. (4.1) Remember in his interview with Haslo Thorsten around 7AM 11/24/1963, he ends the interview with a special greeting to "Dr. Frey." This Dr. Gerhard Frey, editor of the Deutsche NationalZeitung, a former Nazi and well-known anti-Semite. (4.2) Less than 24 hours after the JFK assassination, Walker called his friends in Germany. This is an interesting act. (4.3) Now, you believe that Walker promptly told the Deutsche NationalZeitung that Oswald was his April shooter "because he recognized Oswald and realized he was in a very difficult position." I am still unclear about what that "difficult position" would be. It was because Walker flew on the same airplane as Oswald in 1959? So, let's review. Since Walker flew in an airplane with Oswald, people would have demanded Walker to take the witness stand. On the stand, Walker would have to confess that he knew all about the JFK assassination plot. Is that correct? If so, Jim, then I disagree for three reasons. (4.3.1) Walker was going to be called to the witness stand anyway. He said hateful things about JFK during the Mississippi riots. On 26Sep62, the same day that Walker went on KWKH radio in Shreveport to call for "thousands" of angry protestors to join him in Jackson, Mississippi, Walker also sent an Open Letter to JFK, lambasting him for his weakness in dealing with Cuba. Also, in his many speeches with Billy James Hargis after the Mississippi riots, Walker continued to say that the White House and State Department are taking a course of TREASON in their national policy. (4.3.2) Walker also said hateful things about JFK on October 23, 1963, in a speech to prepare crowds to heckle Adlai Stevenson who was to appear in that same autitorium the very next night! When Adlai showed up, not only did the crowd heckle, they also saw for the first time a mass distribution of the famous poster: "WANTED FOR TREASON: JFK". Walker's modus operandi was all over that poster. (4.3.3) Walker had preached for years that Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren should be IMPEACHED. Walker detested Warren and his Commission. Why in the world would Walker feel obligated to tell the truth to Earl Warren's Commission? He surely would not. Your theory is more elaborate, Jim, yet I believe my key suspicions should be answered before proceeding with another CIA theory. (5.0) You noted that after George DeMohrenschildt suspected Oswald shot at Walker, the FBI begins monitoring Oswald. I raise a point from Dick Russell, here: the business-partner of Walker and part-owner of the American Eagle publishing company was Robert Allen Surrey, who also testified for the Warren Commission. Russell's point is that Robert Allen Surrey played Bridge on a regular basis with James Hosty. (5.1) I believe that Walker and Hosty knew that Oswald was the April shooter, but special plans were being developed in Lousiania for the punishment of Lee Harvey Oswald. After only two weeks of the April shooting, Oswald moves to Louisiana. (5.2) Now, I do believe GP Hemming, so I will also say that Oswald infiltrated the USSR with the help of General Walker. Yet I can easily imagine that the CIA were already aware of this. (5.3) GP Hemming (thanks in part to your interviews of him) told the world that he saw General Walker at Lake Pontchartrain. What was Walker doing consorting with all these Cuban Exiles? I want to know! Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Jim, What a number of interesting approaches to the Walker-Oswald puzzle. I'm only beginning my research into this mess, but I believe I can contribute something to the discussion because I have access to the Briscoe Center for American History, which recently released its Edwin Walker Collection. With the timeline I have garnered so far, and with my impressions from covering about half of the 80 boxes of (mostly unprocessed) archived material at the Briscoe Center, along with biographical information, I would like to offer my current opinions of your five approaches: (1.0) Oswald boards a plan to Helsinki on October 9, 1959. At this point in his career, Major General Edwin Walker is at the top of his game. He is flying high as a newly appointed Commander of the 24th Infantry Division - more responsibility than he ever had, and he loves it. A victorious war hero in World War Two, and a highly decorated artillery officer at Korea, he now had his own Command and he planned to implement his Pro-Blue program of rightist propaganda on his 2,000 or so Troops in Augsberg, Germany. Walker wasn't considering any plots against Government at this time, because he was happier with his prospects than ever before. So, even if Oswald and Walker were somehow on the same plane, I don't see any motive for a General to liaison with this ex-Marine at this time. (1.1) Yes, it is remotely possible that, because Walker was rabidly Anticommunist, that he could have been involved in a plot to infiltrate the USSR using Oswald as a spy; but that theory is unnecessary to adequately explain the subsequent events. (2.0) I am increasingly impressed by Walker's accomplishments in World War Two. (I've formally requested his entire Service Record from the Military Records Office.) Walker was one of the first Commandos (before the Green Berets). That is, he was in Special Ops. He was given lots of responsibility because he was on the fast track to becoming a General. HOWEVER, he was widely known as a man of ACTION, rather than a man of LEARNING. In his West Point Class of 250-or-so students, Walker finished around 215. (Walker wasn't a valedictorian like General Douglas MacArthur.) His speech-writing skills show the spelling and grammar of an average high-school student, said one critic. His reading was almost entirely confined to right-wing pulp pamphlets. Also, Walker believed what he read from Dan Smoot, H.L. Hunt, Clarence E. Manion, Charles B. Hudson, Robert Welch, Joe McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, Billy James Hargis and that lot. This was gospel for him. If they said that there are Communists in the US State Department, they by gawd they exist and so the American Public and Press must be utterly fooled, or conspirators in this Communist plot! This was not rhetoric for Walker. It was the Truth (3.0) I don't have enough information yet to confirm my suspicions, but I believe Walker's troubles with the Overseas Weekly began with his relationship with the segregationist Texas preacher, Billy James Hargis. Hargis recommended many books to Walker for his Pro-Blue program, and they both hoped to get rich when (and if) the USA chose to reproduce their program for the entire USA Military. But Walker was also very religious, in his own way, and he would get carried away with this. He referred to the Overseas Weekly as the Oversexed Weekly, mainly because that newspaper would feature bikini models on every other page. I believe this is what he referred to when he complained to the Army that the Overseas Weekly was "immoral". (3.1) Not in any kind of disrespectful manner, but in a purely psychological approach, I believe we should consider the fact that General Walker was a life-long bachelor, and that his archives show no evidence of any fiance or lady friend of any kind at any time. The only hint we have of his gender preferences (that I have been able to find so far) is gleaned from a couple of arrests, later in life, for public homosexual offenses. (3.2) Remember, this was the Army in 1959. If we have problems with homosexuals in the Military in 2012, we can imagine the problems they had in 1959. It was not acceptable even in Civilian life to be a homosexual. It meant immediate Court Martial to be a homosexual in the Army. And a General?! It would have been an international scandal. His mother would possibly have died of shame. (3.3) Nevertheless, we probably have no choice over our gender preferences, and if so, then Walker was no exception. He may have had to "hide his love away" so to speak, but it would leak out in various ways. In such repressed conditions, a person may be likely to adapt by becoming a notable prude. I believe it leaked out with General Walker in his continual complaining about the Overseas Weekly being made available to the 24th Infantry Division in Germany -- which was supposed to be his Division! (3.4) Walker made himself so annoying to the "regular guys" at the Overseas Weekly newspaper for nearly a year and a half, that they finally got fed up in 1961 and directed an attack on General Walker that was calculated to cause a scandal that would reach the White House. (3.5) Dick Russell (TMWKTM) tells us that the elderly General Charles Willoughby, and his twenty-something protoge, Larrie Schmidt, were the active elements behind the scenes to remove Walker from his post. Willoughby was a rightist himself, but he wasn't a prude, and he wasn't a narrow-minded John Bircher, either. (I would like to confirm Russell's position on this if possible.) (3.6) Anyway, under the influence of Billy Jame Hargis, and his own prudish tendencies, General Walker attacked the Overseas Weekly first for many months, before they finally shot back so effectively. Walker was moved to a harmless desk job the very next day to avoid an international scandal. (3.7) This moment, April, 1961, was the moment when General Walker's world first came crashing down. He would never forget this moment for the rest of his life. He would write speech after speech, defending himself against the Overseas Weekly many years after the event, unable to let it go. He lost everything, really -- because he so much loved being in Command of the 24th Infantry Division; he finally felt he had a large family of his own, perhaps. Losing his Command over the 24th Division broke his heart - and it soured him for life. (3.8) Walker's suspicion of Kennedy started with rightist propaganda. But Walker's hatred of Kennedy started with his removal from Command. (3.9) Therefore, Jim, because our evidence shows Walker spending almost all his time promoting his Pro-Blue propaganda program, and the possible fame and fortune that he might obtain through it, I find insufficient evidence to link General Walker with any plots of any kind at all until April, 1961. In April, 1961, Oswald was only now meeting Marina, and asking her to marry him. (3.10) Finally, in this regard, the confession of Bob Schmidt to the FBI, that he and Larrie and Oswald tried to kill Walker on 4/10/1963, is more interesting because it brings Larrie Schmidt (and by proxy, General Charles Willoughby) back into the picture. (3.11) But why would Oswald want to kill General Walker at all? The reason was already supplied by George DeMohrenschildt in his WC and HSCA testimonies, especially in his booklet, I'm a Patsy! I'm a Patsy! in which George confesses that he and Volkmar Schmidt first made Oswald aware of General Walker in late 1962. George and Volkmar hated General Walker for his embarrasing role in the Oxford, Mississippi riots against racial integration. George confessed that he and Oswald started calling General Walker, "General Fokker," with a demeaning sneer. (4.0) How did the Deutsche NationalZeitung know that Walker was staying at the Captain Shreve Hotel in Shereveport, LA at 7am on 11/24/1963? (4.1) I am convinced, based on the FBI evidence, that General Walker first called the Deutsche NationalZeitung at 6:30 AM or earlier. (4.2) The call from the Deutsche NationalZeitung which came at 7am wasn't from Helmut Muench, but from Haslo Thorsten, a reporter. (4.3.) The FBI records, however, were from interviews with Helmut Muench, who suggests that Walker called him first, and they set up the interview. In that first call, said Muench, Walker blurted out that the same shooter at JFK was the same shooter at Walker on 4/10/1963. One gets the impression that Walker was very excited about it, and quite proud of it. (4.4) Your theory, Jim, has the advantage of showing how General Walker could immediately recognize Oswald from a past encounter. (4.5) However, without that past encounter, we must somehow explain how Walker recognized Oswald so quickly - and also connected Oswald with the Walker shooting of 4/10/1963. (4.6) My best guess comes from Warren Commission testimony of George DeMohrenschildt combined with Dick Russell's research. DeMohrenschilt admitted than when he obtained grounds (on the night of 4/13/1963) to suspect Oswald was the April shooter, he told his friends, Mr. and Mrs. Igor Voshinin. They, in turn, immediately told the FBI. (4.7) If so then the FBI would have immediately told General Walker. So, General Walker would have drawn his conclusions by that very week. (4.8) This means that Walker would have known about Oswald's participation (and DeMohrenschildt's silent complicity) only a few days after the event. (4.9) Walker would have blamed the Kennedy Administration for all this. He would have thought this was a plot by RFK to kill him. That is in fact what Walker told the world for the rest of his life. (4.10) I believe my theory has an edge, Jim, because I'm able to link up testimony from other witnesses to the Warren Commission. This is smooth and needs very little outside speculation. (5.0) So, if Hosty began his tracking of Oswald here, Jim, we know the FBI was lying when they told the Warren Commission that they never suspected Oswald as a Walker shooter until they were told about it from Marina Oswald in December, 1963. (5.1) Yes, the CIA was interested in Oswald - but why and how is a closely guarded secret. We can only speculate upon the facts. (5.2) I speculate as follows: because Walker was an officer in DePugh's Minutemen organization of a US rightist militia, and furthermore, Guy Banister was also an officer in DePugh's Minutemen, it is no accident that Lee Harvey Oswald is rushed from Walker/Dallas to Banister/NewOrleans in just a few days time. (5.3) The transfer of Oswald from Walker to Banister is the same as the transfer of Oswald from Dallas to New Orleans by April 25, 1963. (5.4) The FBI would have known this, because Banister was also FBI. (5.5) The CIA would have known this, because Banister was working with the Lake Pontchartrain training ground for Cuban Exiles, run by the CIA. (5.6) Gerry Patrick Hemming claimed that he saw Lee Harvey Oswald at Lake Pontchartrain. (5.7) Gerry Patrick Hemming claimed that he saw General Walker at Lake Pontchartrain. (5.8) In my opinion, Jim, tracing the whereabouts of General Walker from May, 1963, to October, 1963, is almost impossible in the archives I've seen so far. (5.9) I keenly seek all the Walker connections with Cuban Exiles and Minutemen and John Birch Society from May, 1963 to October, 1963. If there is a smoking gun here, Jim, I would not be surprised to find it in the briefcase of General Edwin A. Walker, but mainly in this time period. Best regards, --Paul Trejo, MA <edit typos>

Tom, according to the interesting FBI links you shared, EUGENE was the most radical rightist of this Irish group, and he believed in the McCarthyist line of Communists in high places in the USA, so he liked General Walker's writings on this topic, and met with Walker on occasion. I would like to see his published interview of Walker. Nevertheless, I quote from the final pages of those FBI files you shared: "EUGENE felt that Texans did not care for President KENNEDY. In addition, EUGENE had expressed the belief that President KENNEDY's trip to Texas would be a failure, but EUGENE didn't make any mention or reference to any violence in connection with that trip. VINCENT said he is sure that EUGENE didn't envision the assassination of President KENNEDY. VINCENT is quite sure that his brother EUGENE wasn't implicated in any way with the assassination of President KENNEDY and, to his knowledge, none of EUGENE O'DOHERTY's associates was implicated in any way...VINCENT has no knowledge whatever concerning the FPCC, and to his knowledge, his brother EUGENE has no knowledge or association with that group." Based on this, I would describe the O'Doherty brothers as two among ten thousand Edwin Walker fans in Texas. The Briscoe Center archives preserve many hundreds of letters of fanmail for General Walker, encouraging him in his excesses, and sending him small cash donations. Many of them were members of the John Birch Society, and many of them expressed violently hostile attitudes toward President Kennedy. Yet finding the smoking gun -- that's the problem. The phone call phrase, "good thing they got him before we were implicated" is indeed suspicious, but at the very worst it suggests a JBS connection with the JFK assassination -- a connection already implied by Jack Ruby's explicit testimony. Yet no smoking gun or further details were found by the FBI. It is interesting -- yet since it does not link Walker to Oswald or to the FPCC, what did we learn here? We learn mainly that the FBI was interested in interviewing General Walker's associates with regard to the JFK assassination. The fact that they came up with so little to give to the Warren Commission is surprising to me. Attorney Liebeler found that Walker's phone call to Germany, to Helmut Muench at 6:30am on the day after the JFK assassination, was very suspicious. This is because Muench told the FBI that Walker said that Oswald was both JFK's shooter and his own shooter on 4/10/1963. Walker -- who hated Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren, and so had no respect for the Warren Commission, blatantly lied to Liebeler, and said that the German newspaperman simply guessed out of thin air on 11/24/1963 that Oswald was the 4/10/1963 shooter, even though Marina Oswald did not tell the FBI about this until December. Around 11/25/1963, Bob Schmidt, the brother of Larrie Schmidt, confessed that he and Larrie and Oswald all three tried to kill Walker on 4/10/1963, as reported by Dick Russell (TMWKTM), and the FBI had these reports, but did nothing at all about them. The FBI never found Larrie Schmidt (to the best of my knowledge) and the Warren Commission never questioned him, either. Nobody ever heard from Larrie Schmidt ever again after the JFK assassination. Yet Dick Russell said that Larrie and General Charles Willoughby were behind the OVERSEAS WEEKLY attacks on General Walker in early 1961, causing Walker to be removed from his Command. I am keenly interested to find any connection between General Walker and radical Cuban Exiles -- or any of his attacks on the FPCC, or anybody who can connect Walker with the Cuban Exiles or the FPCC. The FBI was willing to interview random associates of General Walker -- but they never dug deep enough. I personally don't see a smoking gun with the O'Doherty brothers. Am I missing something? Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Richard, I personally asked Gary Schoener for a copy of his copy -- and he said he would deliver it to me as soon as he finds it. It is currenty lost in his archives. As soon as I receive it, I will share it with this Forum. It is one of my goals. For a little more information about the film (including input from Gary Schoener, who was Harold Weisberg's associate all those years ago) this Forum had a thread about a month ago at this URL: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=18431 For a more detailed Timeline of General Walker, this Forum had a thread about two months ago on at this URL: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=18625 I'm impressed by the Walker history because the following sources claimed that former General Edwin A. Walker was the ringleader of the JFK assassination: (i) Jack Ruby; (ii) Frank Ellsworth [ATF]; and (iii) Harry Dean [in this Forum]. Also, Dick Russell suspected that Walker might have been the ringleader. This combined testimony -- all by itself -- merits more research. Also, the material evidence reveals multiple letters by General Walker trying too hard to portray Oswald, RFK and the CIA trying to kill him, and his belief that he outsmarted them all as proved by the death of JFK. Add to this the hatred that General Walker expressed for the Kennedy Administration in his many speeches around the USA for three years prior to 11/22/1963. Also, Walker's hatred of RFK for making him a 'political prisoner' in an insane asylum on 10/01/1962 was a violation he could never forgive or forget. Add to this the John Martin film -- and I am convinced that far too little research has been done on this topic in the past 48 years. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Richard, I've already shared three documents from General Walker's archives that deliberately seek to link himself with Oswald and JFK. (1) I shared Walker's last known article on this topic, from November, 1991, which he claimed the DPD arrested Oswald on 4/10/1963, but RFK demanded his release that very night. (2) I shared an excerpt from a longer article from April, 1967, by Walker, which also claims that Oswald was "picked up by the law enforcement agency between 9pm and 12 midnight...He was released...The pickup was withheld from the public." (3) I shared Walker's interview with the German newspaper, Deutsche NationalZeitung, less than 24 hours after the JFK assassination. That article, published the following Sunday (11/29/1963) also claimed that Oswald was arresed for the April shooting at Walker on 4/10/1963, but was released by RFK. Tonight I'd like to share two more articles from Walker's archives on this same topic. (4) In a four page lambast of the Kennedy legacy, dated 6/12/1968, one week after the assassination of RFK, Walker as usual writes of himself in the third person: "If authority, in the hands of the Attorney General and the Justice Department, had not seen fit to free Oswald and his associates in the attempted assassination of Edwin A. Walker -- there is no reason to doubt that President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy would be alive today." (5) In 1975, Senator Frank Church's Committee proposed re-opening the JFK assassination case. In a single page, typed letter to Senator Church, dated 6/23/1975, Walker writes: "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 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" On his typed copy, Walker writes in his own handwriting: "No reply." So, there we observe two more examples of General Walker's curious claim that Oswald had been arrested by the DPD on April 10, 1963, and RFK demanded his release. Three newspapers (to my knowledge) repeated that tale: The Deutsche NationalZeitung on November, 29, 1963, the National Enquirer on May 17, 1964 (though they refused to name their source) and the Kerrville Daily News on January 19, 1992. I myself find nothing credible in that story -- but that is what makes me suspicious. Given that this story is an obvious fiction, why in the world would General Walker try to spread it around; not only the day after JFK was killed, but again and again, decade after decade? It seems to me that this fabrication was intended to confess and even boast about something (i.e. a direct link between Walker, Oswald and the JFK assassination), as well as to misdirect attention from something (e.g. being a conspirator) to something else (e.g. being a victim). This Big Myth by General Walker might possibly be a veiled confession. Otherwise, why in the world would he continue to push this false tale for the rest of his life -- especially since nobody in the world was paying any attention to him anymore? It's suspicious to me. Now, if somebody were to say that General Walker believed it because he was suffering from paranoid delusions (as RFK himself suspected) then that would not absolve General Walker from suspicion, rather, in my opinion it should increase our suspicions that he was capable of concealed activity such as a conspiracy. Just a theory - admittedly - but it continues to intrigue me. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Jim, I'm now turning my attention to the Pro-NAZI allegations regarding H.L. Hunt and the society he kept, most importantly Billy James Hargis, Robert DePugh, Robert Welch, Dan Smoot and General Edwin Walker. Billy James Hargis was the leader of Christian Crusade, and he denied being an anti-Semite, and even denied being anti-Negro, however, he also strongly advocated keeping White colleges and Universities purely White. This was not racist, he said, but cultural. Nevertheless, in his expensive seminars in which he hired teams of speakers, he not infrequently let in a speaker with a strong racist message -- although he would disavow affiliation with it later. The same was true of Robert Welch. Although he continually claimed that he would allow Jews into his organization, the local organizations of the John Birch Society around the USA were very independent, and many of them were strictly White and anti-Semite as well. A story is told about a lady in Southern California who joined a JBS chapter, and over the years it became increasingly anti-Semite, so she complained to Robert Welch himself. Robert Welch advised her to quit that chapter and find another one, if she could. The same was true of Robert DePugh and his Minutemen -- they accepted Jews on paper in 1963, but in the trenches, they were not found, and many local leaders would make speeches blaming the Jews for everything from communism to capitalism. General Walker would not make overt racist statements, but he did say he regretted his role in racially integrating the Little Rock High Schools in 1959. And when Governor Ross Barnett of Mississippi made a national stand to deny any Negro from applying to Oxford University, General Walker was quickly on national radio to call for "thousands" of angry protesters to prevent James Meredith, a black Air Force vet, from being accepted as a student there. Some reports say that Walker called on young Minutemen as well as JBS members to 'bring their guns' to this showdown between JFK and Governor Barnett. Finally, when Walker wanted to rail against the Jews in the Supreme Court, he would shout that it was an "Antichrist Supreme Court." So - race and anti-Semitism were an integral part of the right-wing screed of Dallas in 1963. My question to you, Jim, is whether you possess *written* evidence (preferably from H.L. Hunt's own words) that Hunt was pro-NAZI. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

I don't know how this escaped me, Richard, but one of the most interesting artifacts we have that connect Walker with Oswald between 4/10/1963 and 11/22/1963 is a home movie made by a young man named John Martin. In this home movie (reviewed by Martin Shackleford) a young man goes to visit General Edwin Walker at his home in Dallas, to film the bullet holes recently made by a sniper. The film shows a view from the airplane on the ride to Dallas, and then the Walker house. Later in that same film, the young man is in a park in New Orleans, when he hears a commotion on Canal Street, and runs over to see the fuss. It is Lee Harvey Oswald fighting with Carlos Bringuier, and the police arresting them and taking them away. In the final scene of the film, the young man pans Canal street buildings, and then narrows down to the sidewalk, and then to an FPCC flyer lying in the gutter. I have not yet seen this film with my own eyes, but members of this Forum have verified that it exists, and that the Jack Martin who took this film was not the same Jack Martin who worked for Guy Banister. Actually, this John Martin was about 23 years old in 1963 (according to Harold Weisberg's associate, Gary Schoener) although the FBI claimed he was only 17. John Martin also admitted to Weisberg and Schoener that he was a member of the Minutemen organization, too, and we know that General Walker was an officer in the Minutemen. John Martin also said he served under Walker in the 24th Infantry Division in Germany. (Weisberg and Schoener did not follow-up the Walker connection back in 1968, because they were too busy trying to identify people in the crowd during the Oswald-Bringuier episode.) My speculation is that young John Martin made this film on behalf of General Walker in August of 1963. The film makes a visual connection between the April 10th shooting and the (later to be identified) shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald. It is part of a political frame-up, in my opinion. If this is correct, then it directly implicates General Walker in activities involving Oswald before 11/22/1963. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Richard, that's true -- unless the FBI chose instead to back Walker's rage. All the FBI needed to do in this particular case was to 'look the other way.' Best regards, --Paul Trejo

John, that's an interesting reference, and I will try to locate that film. I want to learn as much as possible about the riots at Oxford, Mississippi University in 1962, because I believe this is probably where General Edwin Walker first got the idea that JFK must be dealt with more severely. All best, --Paul

Bernice, you've evidently done some research into General Walker -- do you have any information about a personal letter than Walker sent to JFK on 26Sep63, just days before the Oxford riots? The official title is: Open Letter, Edwin A. Walker to President John F. Kennedy, 26 September 1963. As it turns out, the open letter from Edwin A. Walker to President Kennedy is located in the John F. Kennedy White House Central Subject File, but it has not been digitized like the other 5,000 letters in JFK's White House correspondence. The JFK Libary admits they have it, but charge $15 for a copy of this one-page document. If anybody on this Forum has a copy of this letter, it would be nice to share in a timely manner. If not, I will fork over the $15 and wait a couple of weeks for their snail mail, and then digitize it and post it on this thread. But it would be nice to have a look at it RIGHT NOW if anybody already has a copy. Best regards, --Paul Trejo P.S. I already mentioned that any film or sound recordings of interviews of eye-witnesses to the Oxford, Mississippi riots are unavailable to the public without a special legal screening per the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act). I have requested a screening of nine sound recordings so far, and I have yet to hear a reply from NARA (the National Archives and Records Administration). If anybody on this Forum already has such sound recordings (or the few visual recordings) I believe Forum members on this thread would love to see them.

Tom, these are valuable and relevant items of evidence. Thanks very much for them. Yet let's review what we have here: (1) Warren Commission attorney Wesley Liebeler himself wrote a letter to Charles Klihr to ask about the photo of the Chevy with the license blacked out. (2) The Dallas FBI (not Mr. Klihr) replied to Wesley Leibeler to refuse his request for information. Klihr told the FBI he had no idea what Liebeler was asking for, and he had no intention of talking to him. The FBI backed up Klihr's reply, because after all there was no good reason they could see for raising questions about a case that had been closed three years previously. It just seemed like a big bother to the Dallas folks. (3) Surrey's WC testimony described Klihr's 1957 Chevy, and he repeatedly said that he couldn't identify the car in the photo with Klihr's car. Liebeler refused to accept that answer, and pressed if it only *might* be Klihr's car. (In my opinion, Liebeler did not want anybody to honestly identify the owner -- it had to be somebody harmless.) I think we agree that the FBI behavior is suspicious. But I don't believe we learned anything much about Charles Klihr. He *might* be a harmless volunteer, a bystander who didn't want to get involved and who begged the FBI to leave him alone. He *might* be closer to the FBI than that, but we really don't have enough evidence one way or another. In my opinion, the Warren Commission questioning of Surrey was typical of so much questioning there, that is, the attorneys already had their minds made up about the outcome of the case, and they were careful to steer any criticism or identifications away from the Dallas rightists. Beyond that, I can't make out anything more about Charles Klihr from all these FBI evasions. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Richard, you are right to question "When" Walker first announced that he believed Oswald had been arrested by the DPD; all known records say it was the early morning of 11/23/1963 at the earliest. However, Dick Russell, in his 1992 book, The Man Who Knew Too Much, asked a variation on your question. He tried to find out if Walker ever mentioned Oswald in any context at all in 1963 before the JFK assassination. Most of his sources yielded zero results - except one. The personal assistant of H.L. Hunt would accompany Hunt when visiting Walker, or when Walker visited Hunt. In one of those conversations, he remembers, certainly before the assassination, Hunt and Walker distinctly mentioned Lee Harvey Oswald -- but the assistant could not remember the context of the conversation. For another source, Harry Dean (a member of this Forum) recollects attending a John Birch Society meeting in Southern California in mid-1963 in which General Walker was in charge, and the topic of engaging Lee Harvey Oswald as a patsy in their plottings to assassinate JFK was clear and deliberate. Harry was working for the FBI at the time of this incident, and he filed an FBI report of the incident. However, that report has never been recovered. No documentation; no recordings; no artifacts; only Harry Dean's personal memories. Given these allegations, it appears plausible that the FBI was well aware, long in advance, that a paramilitary group was plotting something, and instead of acting on this information as FBI protocol would have demanded, J. Edgar Hoover chose to 'look the other way'. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Mark, here's a little more about the puzzle of the blacked-out license plate. The FBI identified Charles Klihr as an owner of a 1957 Chevy who also volunteered at General Walker's home business at 4011 Turtle Creek Road. Here are the FBI documents that mention Klihr: http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?mode=searchResult&absPageId=360199 http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?mode=searchResult&absPageId=772331 I find it interesting that Klihr was mentioned, but the FBI neglected to interview Mr. Klihr. One might conclude that the FBI already knew that Mr. Klihr would not be one of their suspects. Dick Russell, on the other hand, has a different story in his 1992 book, The Man Who Knew Too Much. According to Russell, Bob Schmidt (the brother of Larrie Schmidt) also drove a 1957 Chevy, and he also worked for Walker -- not as a volunteer, but as a paid employee, so Bob Schmidt was there on a daily basis. Russell suspects it was Bob's car. If Dick Russell is correct, and if the FBI knew that (since they are the likely folks who blacked out the license plate number) then the FBI went to a lot of trouble to divert attention away from the true owner of that vehicle, and to divert attention toward the harmless volunteer, Charles Klihr. Why? According to Dick Russell, Bob Schmidt made a confession to the FBI a few days after the JFK assassination, namely, that he and Larrie and Lee Harvey Oswald all drove together on April 10, 1963 at 9pm to shoot at General Walker. They aimed to kill. This corresponds with at least one eye-witness, a neighbor who said that he saw a Ford Sedan speed away with two people, and he also saw a '57 Chevy at the nearby Mormon Church speed away. So, Dick Russell was very suspicious about Larrie and Bob Schmidt, but he could never locate them. These boys should have been questioned by the Warren Commission, but they were not. Instead, their roles in the Walker affair were quickly hushed up. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Mark, nobody ever came up with an official explanation for the destroyed license plate number; not in the Warren Commission testimony, and not in the HSCA hearings. If I were to guess, I'd say it was to hide the identify of the owner of the car - since this is the modus operandi of the FBI and CIA when they release classified information. If this is correct, then the truth is clear -- the FBI/CIA knew who owned the car, and they chose to protect this person. Now, why else would they choose to protect that person unless something known and clandestine was involved? No other reason. So, the car belonged to somebody that was involved in something top secret, and the FBI/CIA chose to conceal the identity of that person. If that is correct, then I will speculate: the owner of the car was either Larrie Schmidt or somebody close to Larrie Schmidt. Schmidt was the leader of the "Conservatism USA" movement that started in Germany among US military officers. They moved to Dallas in 1962 and successfully took over the YAF (Young Americans for Freedom), and were in the process of taking over the NIC (National Indignation Committee) and even Walker's own AEP (American Eagle Publications). Larrie Schmidt's brother, Bob Schmidt, obtained a full-time job with Walker as chauffer and errand-boy, a month before the April 10th shooting incident. Larrie was a protoge of General Charles Willoughby, who was General MacArthur's intelligence officer - a brilliant writer who wrote the four volume history of General MacArthur's World War Two campaigns. When MacArthur was fired by President Truman, Willoughby began making up stories of a Communist plot in the White House. (This is where Joe McCarthy got his first inklings for his renegade movement.) So, Larrie Schmidt was a very ambitious young man (in his twenties) and he was very well connected with people in high places. If he was involved in any clandestine activity surrounding the JFK assassination, the FBI/CIA did not want this to be known. That's my speculation. Best regards, --Paul Trejo UPDATE March, 2017: Today I accept the conclusion that the car belonged to Mr. Charles Klihr, who, along with his wife, was a long-time volunteer for the John Birch Society and General Edwin Walker, and who was as naïve as a child. Mr. and Mrs. Klihr had no idea about any cloak-and-dagger plots; they were simply office volunteers for the American Eagle Publishing Company, filling book orders. The reason the FBI scratched out their license plate number was to protect the innocent. That's my current position. PT