Steve Thomas
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Posts posted by Steve Thomas
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51 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:
Steve - I don’t know. I appreciate your efforts to find documentation. I hope you weren’t insulted when I said I would trust the oral history more than the statement from the Intel officer you interviewed. There are many references on this thread to Crichton’s long service as a member and founder of this unit. It’s even in his obituary. I recall from reading in your thread Revolt of the Colonels that you were unable to fully document the 488th and the connection to Whitmeyer. What do you think is the reason?
Paul,
Sorry. I just get frustrated with the same second-hand and third-hand references repeated over and over. As far as who Crichton reported to, many people say he reported to George Whitmeyer, but Whitmeyer was defined as:
DallasMorning News 11-16-1965
"Lt. Col. George L. Whitmeyer, deputy East Texas sector commander said the same units were listed more than a month ago..."
Whitmeyer is referred to in combined Batchelor, Lumpkin, and Stevenson, report to Curry as, “ Lt. Colonel George Whitmeyer, U.S. Army, Dallas Sub-section Commander.”
DPD Archives Box 14, Folder# 14, Item# 10 p. 20.
http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box14.htm
On April 22, 1964 Police Chief, Jesse Curry told the Warren Commission, “I had Deputy Chief Lumpkin, and he had two Secret Service men with him, I believe, out of Washington, and a Colonel Wiedemeyer who is the East Texas Section Commander of the Army Reserve in the area, he was with him.
Testimony of Jesse Curry. Warren Commission Hearings and Exhibits, volume IV, p. 170, as cited in the History Matters Archive, http://history-matte..._Vol4_0089b.htmThe thing is, there is no such job title in the U.S. Army, or Army Reserve chain of command. So what was he the "Commander" of?
The only time I've seen these kind of references is the head of a VFW Post, and the head of a regional Military Order of World Wars organization.
Crichton has been referred to as the founder and head of the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment. As you pointed out, this unit was also called the 488th Strategic Intelligence Team.
So what exactly was it? If a person can't identify what it was, how can you trust it had 100 members, 40 or 50 of which were members of the Dallas Police Department?
As far as the military intelligence officer I referred to, he and I corresponded for about a year. He's not part of the JFK Assassination research community, so I kept him out of it.
Steve Thomas
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Google has introduced a new search tool that uses artificial intelligence to search for ideas in books, rather than traditional keyword searching.
It's called Talk To Books.
https://books.google.com/talktobooks/
I'm just introducing this as a new search tool for researchers.
Steve Thomas
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8 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:
Bottom line was that one apparent source of funds were the ultra right, big money oil and ranching people in Texas
Ah yes, money. That makes sense. That and politics, I suppose. For some reason Dallas seemed to be a black hole for extremist political thought.
What was it JFK said, "We're heading into nut country today"?
Steve Thomas
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7 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:
The PD Scott book I have at hand refers to two documents. If you know how to look up WC documents it's WCD 386, SS 1058. The other is 9 WH 106. Not sure what WH stands for. The 488th is not specifically mentioned in this book Deep Politics and the Death of JFK. But Army Intelligence Reserve, and local Army Intelligence Unit, are.
In Dallas '63 he also quotes Our Man in Acapulco, where the unit is called 488th Strategic Intelligence Team
Paul,
Drop the W. It's just 9H106.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=43#relPageId=114&tab=page
Let me put it this way. In his capacity as "Head of a Local Intelligence Unit", who did Crichton report to?
Steve Thomas
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1 hour ago, Paul Brancato said:
Steve - given the mystery surrounding the 488th I’d put more faith in Crichton’s oral interview than in your interview with a former colonel, whose comment to you seems quite dismissive and glib.
Paul,
The person I mentioned was dismissive of Crichton's 488th. When he talked about it being a "social club", it was more along the lines of a VFW or an American Legion, or the Military Order of World Wars. I put a lot more faith in him than I do Crichton. I spent a lot of time trying to track this "unit" down. I could not find any trace of it in any chain of command I ever looked at. I've asked before if anyone could tell me to what company, regiment, or division it belonged. No one can tell me. As far as I am concerned, it only existed in Crichton's mind.
Steve Thomas
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1 hour ago, Larry Hancock said:
There are a number of points that might have led the FBI to interview Orcarberrio during 1963, related both the the people involved with the House on Harlandale, to weapons purchasing activities in Dallas and after the assassination in regard to both reports about the house and Oswald and issues like Sylvia Odio's statements.
Larry,
I've been thinking about this for a couple of days. It seems like there was a push by the anti-Castro Cuban exile community to establish a presence in the Dallas area in the May-June, 1963 time frame. JURE, DRE, Alpha-66.
Do you see any significance to this?
Steve Thomas
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3 hours ago, Paz Marverde said:
What I can add here for now, is that there is a really deep connection – I do mean deep – between OAS (Organisation armée secrète) and the Italian right-wing politician Tambroni.
Paz,
Who in the OAS do you think was involved with the CMC?
Yves Guérin-Sérac? Pierre Sergeant? François de Grossouvre? or others?
My guess would would be de Grossouvre.
Importantly, Jean Claude Perez said (to Fensterwald?) that, post 1962, Souetre was part of an ultra-right, ultra-Catholic splinter group which included four men named Pichon, Lefevre, Bourget, and Grossouvre. Group called Integraliste.
http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/S Disk/Souetre Jean with aka's/Item 11.pdf
page 4François de Grossouvre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/François_de_Grossouvre
In 1943 he married Claudette Berger, daughter of an industrialist, Antoine Berger, and had six children. Grossouvre managed his family-in-law's companies Le Bon Sucre (1944–63) and A. Berger et Cie (1949–63), and then founded the Générale Sucrière sugar company. Along with Italian collaborators, businessman Gilbert Beaujolin and the American Alexandre Patty, he succeeded in obtaining an exclusive production licence for Coca-Cola and building the first factory of this type in France. Distribution was by the Société parisienne de boissons gazeuses and the Glacières de Paris, both subsidiaries of Pastis Pernod.
(Remember Souetre was the manager? of a sugar company in Martinique)
According to Fensterwald in A Possible French Connection, Souetre “spent much time in Martinique where nominally, he was the Director of a sugar refinery whose head office was in France at Arcis sur Aube.”
http://www.xiconhoca.org/PDF/DDeRoux/Apossiblefrenchconnection.pdf page 13 of the memo page 15 of the pdf.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcis-sur-Aube
“Besides many big farms producing all sorts of cereals, the sugar industry has a big plant there Cristal Union.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/François_de_Grossouvre
According to former SDECE agent Louis Mouchon, "His (de Grossouvre) business, the A. Berger et Cie Sugar company, offered ample opportunities to stage fronts. He really had excellent contacts."
Steve Thomas
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12 hours ago, Trygve V. Jensen said:
After 5 minutes of searching, - I found out something.
That it is more of a challenge, -- searching for information on this guy ,
Trygve,
Here's a little of what I've learned:
Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberro was born on November 8, 1928 in Santiago de Cuba, Oriente (Province?) Cuba. https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11481#relPageId=219&tab=page
He worked for the Coca-Cola company.
Among the Miscellaneous CIA Series, there is an unauthored FBI Report of the various anti-Castro groups in Dallas: JURE, 30th of November, Alpha 66-SNFE, etc.
REPORT: JUNTA REVOLUCIONARIA CUBANA; SEGUNDO FRENTE DE ESCAMBRAY (OPERATION ALPHA 66); DIRECTORIO REVOLUCIONARIO ESTUDIANTIL; MOVIMIENTO REVOLUCIONARIO 30 DE NOVIEMBRE; FAIR PLAY FOR CUBA COMMITTEE
NARA Record Number: 104-10320-10070
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=28726&relPageId=2
Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberro furnished the following information:
He served as a Lieutenant in Fidel Castro's army under the command Humberto Matos from February, 1958 until October 21, 1959.
He subsequently took asylum in the Brazilian Embassy in Havana and entered the United States as an exile in Miami on November 29, 1960.
(see p. 4 of this Report)
After the assassination of President Kennedy, information was received from Dallas T-3, a government agency which conducts security-type information, that a source had provided information that Rodriguez was known to be violently anti-Kennedy.
The Dallas T-3 agency was the Secret Service, and the source was the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
On February 10, 1964, Rodriguez had told Wallace Heitman that he had become interested in the SNFE and that in June, 1963, one of the founding members of SNFE, Andres Nazario Sargen, had written him a letter asking him to establish a Dallas Chapter of SNFE. Rodriguez said that through his efforts, such a Chapter had been formed in June, 1963, with he, Rodriguez as President. At that time, Rodriguez lived at 2311 Nicholson St. in Dallas.
On pp. 5-6 of that Rodriguez lists the officers of the Dallas Chapter of SNFE. One of the members of the Board of Directors was Jorge Salazar. The group met in Salazar's home on a bi-weekly basis.
Two other members of the group were Raoul Castro and Juan Quitana. Rafael Quintana and Raoul Castro lived together in a house in Grand Prairie, Texas with two Mexican sisters.
They had defected to the U.S. from Cuba by way of Mexico by swimming across the Rio Grande River at Brownsville, TX.
Raoul Castro owned a Nash Rambler Station wagon.
Raoul Castro and Juan Quintana had attended a John Birch Society meeting and Quitana picked up a bumper sticker that read, “Kan the Kennedy Klan” and put it on Castro;s car. Someone (and they both denied it was them) had scratched out the work Kan and wrote in “Kill” After the assassination, efforts were made to remove that bumper sticker.
It is possible (and I stress the word possible), that Lee Harvey Oswald was at that same John Birch Society meeting. During his WC testimony, http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/paine_m1.htm
Michael Paine told the WC that he and Oswald had attended a meeting of the ACLU. During that ACLU meeting, Oswald stood up and reported on a meeting that he had attended of the John Birch Society. Paine believed that this JBS meeting had been held on the evening before Adlai Stevenson had spoken at U.N. Day on October 24, 1963 and had been bonked on the head by a picket sign.
“Mr. LIEBELER - For the record I think the record should indicate that Mr. Stevenson was in Dallas on or about October 24, 1963.
Mr. PAINE - When I went to the ACLU meeting he (Oswald) then got up, stood up and reported what had happened at the meeting of the far right which had occurred at convention hall the day before, U.N. Day, they called it U.S. Day, and I think Walker had spoken then.”
It is very possible that Oswald was at the anti-Stevenson rally at the same time as Larry Schmidt, Bobby Joiner, members of the John Birch Society and members of SNFE/Alpha 66.
ATF Agent Frank Ellsworth was investigating a series of arms thefts from National Guard Armories.
He went undercover posing as an arms buyer and approached John Thomas Masen, a gun dealer, who Ellsworth suspected as trafficking in these stolen guns. Masen told Ellsworth that Orcarberro and a man named George Parrel were attempting to buy arms from him, had done so in the past, and had a large cache of weapons in the Dallas area.
See Warren Commission Document 853 SS Rowley Memorandum of 24 Apr 1964
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11250#relPageId=4&tab=page
I can supply you with further details if you like, such as Heitman's interviews with Castro and Quinatana, etc.
The picture that has been supplied of Rodriguez Orcarberro may or may not be him. I've never seen another photograph to compare it to. INS was supposed to have a photo, but I've never seen it. He told Heitman that he was 5'11” tall, weighed 158 lbs, had brown hair and wore dark-rimmed glasses.
Steve Thomas
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3 hours ago, Sandy Larsen said:
In the upper-right corner of the forum window is your photo and name. Click on your name and a popup window will appear. Click on My Attachments.
You will now see a list of photos you've uploaded and to the right of each photo is the post you attached the photo to.
Find the photo you want to delete. Then click the name of the thread (on the right) where you attached the photo.
This will open a new window and, if you wait a few seconds, your browser should automatically go to the post where that photo is attached. (In my case, I often need scroll down a little. That's due to a flaw in my version of FireFox.)
Click the Edit link for the post where the photo is attached, just as you would to edit any post. At the bottom of the editor window you will see a thumbnail copy of the photo that is attached. In the corner of the thumbnail you will see a tiny trash can icon. Click this to remove the photo from your allotted attachment space. Click Save to save your change.
Sandy,
Thank you.
Steve Thomas
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1 hour ago, Joe Bauer said:
Do you honestly believe that a species with the ability to first find us, yet not send a signal?
Joe,
Some would say that the ever increasingly complex crop circles are just that.
Steve Thomas
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2 hours ago, Ty Carpenter said:
What would the benefit be to the conspirators in linking LHO to the Walker shooting and JFKA? Just to prove that he is willing to kill/shoot?
Ty,
"Oswald killed Dallas Police Patrolman, J.D. Tippit approximately 45 minutes after the assassination. This conclusion upholds the finding that Oswald fired the shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally..."
Warren Report. p. 20.
What's good for the goose....
Ummmm..... I think I'll turn this one over to Cory.
Steve Thomas
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1 hour ago, David Josephs said:
In virtually every case, the WC lawyers use the full "Lee Harvey Oswald" when referring to him.... Lee Oswald as well but usually by the commissioners as opposed to the lawyers....
These are the few times I could find "HARVEY" without "LEE"....
155 David,
At 2:40 PM, W.E. Potts, B.L. Senkel and Lt. E.L. Cunningham were dispatched to 1026 N. Beckley. Potts wrote in his after-action report (Box 2, Folder# 9, Item# 32) http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box2.htm
Potts' after-action report is undated.
The Supplementary Offense Report cited earlier is dated 11/25/63.
Mrs. ROBERTS. Well, they asked him if there was a Harvey Lee Oswald there.
WC testimony of Arthur Clark Johnson (owner of 1026 N. Beckley)http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/johnso_a.htm
Mr. BELIN. Did they say how they happened to come there?
Mr. JOHNSON. "Well, uh--after he was--uh--apprehended out there, they searched him and found my address in his pocket
Mr. BELIN. Your address of 1026 North Beckley?
Mr. JOHNSON. That's right
I have never seen this piece of paper in any Dallas Police Department evidence sheets.
Mr. BELIN. Now, what did Mrs. Roberts say about this man having been at the home earlier that day--this O. H. Lee, which they had identified as Harvey Oswald?
I personally believe, but cannot prove, that this ties into that unknown police officer giving Will Fritz the 1026 N. Beckley St. address out in the hall before Fritz ever started questioning Oswald.Steve Thomas
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34 minutes ago, Steve Thomas said:
This Supplementary Offense Report is signed by W.E. Potts.
At 2:40 PM, W.E. Potts, B.L. Senkel and Lt. E.L. Cunningham were dispatched to 1026 N. Beckley. Potts wrote in his after-action report (Box 2, Folder# 9, Item# 32) http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box2.htm
that after he finished taking some affidavits, Fritz dispatched them to the Beckely St address at 2:40 and they arrived at Beckley at 3:00PM.
Mrs. ROBERTS. Well, it was Will Fritz' men---it was plainclothesmen and I was at the back doing something and Mr. Johnson answered the door and they identified themselves and then he called me.
Mr. BALL. What did they say?
Mrs. ROBERTS. Well, they asked him if there was a Harvey Lee Oswald there.Mrs. ROBERTS. No---he registered as O. H. Lee and they were asking for Harvey Lee Oswald.
Steve Thomas
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7 minutes ago, Tom Hume said:
Hi Steve,
According to the Spartacus article on Jack Crichton, “In an interview Crichton claimed that there were ‘about a hundred men in that [488th Military Intelligence] unit and about forty or fifty of them were from the Dallas Police Department.'”
It might be instructive to know who those forty or fifty policemen were. Do you know if such a list has ever been compiled?
Tom,
I spoke to a former Colonel of a real live Military Intelligence Detachment.
When I floated this idea of Crichton's "100 man" 488th, he snorted.
He told me that what I was describing was a social club, not an MID.
Real Military Intelligence Detachments consisted of no more than 9 men.
This idea of a 100 man Intelligence Unit, of which 40-50 were members of the Dallas Police Force grew out out of an oral interview that Crichton gave to the Sixth Floor Museum.
That oral interview is no longer available.
There were members of the Dallas Police Force who were active in the Army Reserves who were Intelligence officers (like Lumpkin), and who knew each other, but whether they were part of "Crichton's group" is seriously open to question in my mind.
You can read through the Forum thread entitled, Revolt of the Colonels?, if you're interested.
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/23478-revolt-of-the-colonels/
Steve Thomas
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16 hours ago, Douglas Caddy said:
John Newman posted this on Facebook today:
In November 2017 at the Lancer conference in Dallas, and again in March 2018 at the conference in San Francisco, I gave a presentation on Antonio Veciana and his claim that Bishop/Phillips recruited and trained him in Havana beginning in mid-1960. In Volume III, ("Into the Storm") coming at the end of 2018, there are a least two major chapters on the Veciana story about his relationship with David Phillips. The attached chart is worth studying; it speaks volumes about Veciana's story and how poorly our research community handled the alleged recruitment in Cuba over several decades (the person who noticed was Cuban intelligence chief, Fabian Escalante, in 1995). I am releasing this chart now because it takes a few months just to begin understanding its ramifications. I hope you enjoy working through them.
You can read a copy of The Secret War, by Fabian Escalante online here:
Steve Thomas
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On 4/9/2018 at 10:04 AM, Steve Thomas said:
George Bouhe was Lewis McNaughton's personal accountant for nine years.
See his WC testimony.
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/bouhe.htm
Mr. BOUHE - "For 9 1/2 years I was employed as a personal accountant of a very prominent Dallas geologist, and probably capitalist if you want to say it, Lewis W, MacNaughton, senior chairman of the board of the well-known geological and engineering firm of DeGolyer & MacNaughton, but I was MacNaughton's personal employee."
Steve Thomas
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On 4/15/2006 at 12:43 AM, John Simkin said:
Thought Jack Alston Crichton deserved his own thread.
Squadron CO's
Left to Right: Howard C. Todt (839th), John W. Hammett (837th), Major Jack A. Crichton (Group Intelligence Officer), Francis C. Eberhart (838th), Lyndall J Avery (836th)
(photo provided Jack Crichton through Ivo de Jong)http://www.487thbg.org/Photos/SquadronCOs.shtml
487th Bomb Group (H)
Station 137 - Lavenham, Suffolk, UK
22-Sep-43 to 7-Nov-45
http://www.487thbg.org/roster/487thRosterIntro.shtml
Steve Thomas
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On 4/15/2006 at 12:43 AM, John Simkin said:
Thought Jack Alston Crichton deserved his own thread.
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2 hours ago, Mike Kilroy said:
I'm just curious who "the man in charge" is. Shackley? Joannides predecessor? Harvey?
Mike,
I think Jason might have answered this in his post: Ross Crozier.
Steve Thomas
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JFK's 'secret' doomsday map revealed
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/06/us/jfk-cuban-missile-crisis-map-auction/index.html
“Based on photos from US spy planes, President Kennedy's map -- which was classified as "secret" -- shows locations of nine weapons installations in Cuba that US forces likely would have targeted if he had ordered an attack.
A key to the map summarizes locations of Soviet weapons on Cuba, including MiG fighter jets and sites housing nuclear-armed medium range ballistic missiles, which experts said threatened Miami, Washington and New Orleans.”
Cuban Missile Crisis map -- estimated to be worth about $20,000 is up for auction.
Steve Thomas
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On 3/1/2006 at 8:42 AM, John Simkin said:
It soon became clear that Boeing was expected to get the contract. Its main competitor was the General Dynamics/Grumman bid.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=9836&relPageId=3
“Max Edward Clark was employed by Convair, a division of General Dynamics Corporation, Fort Worth, Texas, as a “Supervisor of Industrial Security and Investigation”, requiring access to classified matter up to and including, Top Secret”.
Guess who Lee Oswald looked up when he got back from Russia?
Steve Thomas
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On 4/5/2018 at 10:30 AM, Steve Thomas said:
Jim,
Thank you. That's interesting.
We're told that Oswald "became acquainted" with the White Russian Community. It's more specific than that. He established contact with White Russians involved in the petroleum engineering community, and even more specifically with Russian petroleum engineering interests.
WC testimony of Peter Paul Gregory:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/gregoryp.htm
Mr. LIEBELER - You are presently self-employed in Fort Worth, is that correct?
Mr. GREGORY - I am presently chairman of the Yates Pool Engineering Committee which is a group of engineers supervising activities in the Yates oilfield in Pecos County, Tex., and I am also a consulting petroleum engineer.WC testimony of George Bouhe:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/bouhe.htm
Mr. BOUHE - For 9 1/2 years I was employed as a personal accountant of a very prominent Dallas geologist, and probably capitalist if you want to say it, Lewis W, MacNaughton, senior chairman of the board of the well-known geological and engineering firm of DeGolyer & MacNaughton, but I was MacNaughton's personal employee.
Take a look at who DeGolyer was.
Bouhe, Gregory, DeMohrenschildt, Jack Crichton, Jake Hamon... the list goes on.
The people that Oswald "became acquainted with" were people who were interested in developing the oil fields in the Middle East, Southern Russia, and Central Asia.
Peter Dale Scott COPA Conference 11/24/2010
(Jack) Crichton, an oil engineer and corporation executive, also doubled as a member of the Dallas overworld. Although his 488th intelligence unit consisted almost 50 percent of Dallas policemen, Crichton also used it as a venue in the late 1950s to conduct “a study of Soviet oil fields;” and in the 1990s Crichton would himself explore the oil and gas reserves in the former Soviet Union. Also interested in Soviet oil reserves at this time were Ilya Mamantov’s employers and personal friends, the wealthy Pew family in Dallas who were owners of Sunoco. By 2009 the second largest source of crude for Sunoco (after Western Africa) was Central Asia, supplying 86,000 barrels of crude a day.
http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/degolyer-everette.pdf
Everette DeGolyer:
"The opinion of his firm, DeGolyer and MacNaughton, on an appraisal of the worth of a property or a company was accepted as final in financial and government circles the world around. This firm was at one time or another consultant to ten or more foreign governments on subjects ranging from organizing exploration pro-grams to the proper price for oil F.O.B. tankers in the Persian Gulf.
Starting in 1918 with a special report for the United States Treasury, he became in 1941 Director of Conservation in the Office of the Coordinator for National Defense and Assistant Deputy Coordinator in 1942. The following year he was first made Assistant Deputy Administrator for War, and then head of the Petroleum Reserves Corporation mission to the Middle East."
Steve Thomas
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1 hour ago, Gene Kelly said:
On February 3, 1964, Cabell resigned as mayor of Dallas in order to run for Congress. He unseated the ten-year Republican incumbent Bruce Alger. In that same election, Jack Crichton was defeated by a wide margin by the Democratic Governor John B. Connally, Jr., and George Herbert Walker Bush fell to Senator Ralph W. Yarborough. Cabell served four terms in the House before he was defeated in the 1972 election.
Gene,
Someday, I'd like to read this book:
The Republican-Democrat political campaigns in Texas in 1964
1.
Texas State Library & Archives Commission
Austin, TX 78701 United States
Steve Thomas
Print book : English
Jack Alston Crichton
in JFK Assassination Debate
Posted
Paul,
Yes, I think there is good reason.
The one area I haven't been able to explore are the records of the Texas Military Department.
https://tmd.texas.gov/state-guard
"The Texas Military Department is composed of the three branches of the military in the state of Texas. These branches are the Texas Army National Guard, the Texas Air National Guard, and the Texas State Guard. All three branches are administered by the state Adjutant General, an appointee of the Governor of Texas, and fall under the command of the Governor."
Their records are stored at the Texas National Archives at the State Library in Austin.
This would make a good research project for a grad student history major I think.
Steve Thomas