David Boylan

George Lincoln Rockwell's name and address are in LHO's address book. Rockwell was also an associate of Banister's and Walker's. Walker's chief aide, Robert Surrey, later became Rockwell's printer and head of the Dallas branch of the American Nazi Party.

I posted someof this before but it's always good to "hear" it from the source: Beckham: Right. Okay. I guess the best place to start is a meeting I had in Algiers, Louisiana...that's as soon as you get off the ferry boat. It's in Orlean Parish. This meeting was attended by myself, Sergio Arcacha, G. Wray Gill, a gentleman by the name of Marcello. If I'm not mistaken a picture I've seen of him was Vincent Marcello. Along with me was a gentleman, a little bitty guy, his name was O Lord, let's see, Morello, Charlie Morello, and Sergio Arcacha was there. Roswell Thompson and a lady by the name of Berglass, she was Anna. At this meeting there were Cubans present, other ones. We talked about, I say "we", they talked about the assassination of the President....We also had a meeting at a place called the Town and Country. That's a motel, vaguely as I can remember on the right hand side of the highway going out towards the airport. This meeting was attended by a Marcello, there was G. Wray Gill, and us there at the time. At that particular meeting, the Cuban issue was discussed, the President, his involvement and how, oh, different things, that, how the President refused to give air support, things like this was discussed. Also I delivered a package approximately, I'd say, two weeks to Dallas prior to the assassination of the President, to a Mr. Howard. I went into Mr. G. Wray Gill's office, I was told to go there by Mr. Ferrie, which I knew real well, and in his office shuffled up some documents which were drawings, that of a map, or plots and stuff. There were some pictures, pictures of buildings and cars and was regular pictures but they wasn't glossy. They were put inside of an envelope at which time G. Wray Gill handed me...it was either one hundred or two hundred dollars, and told me that I was to be, I was going to be taken to the airport. I was to deliver this package to a Mr. Howard at the Executive Inn. At this meeting was Roswell, was Jack Martin, David Ferris[sic] and a bunch of...Sergio Arcacha. Also at the meeting was your Mr. Marcello was at the meeting, setting at, they were setting on a couch. I remember the couch....My good friend Clay Shaw was also there. […] I was sitting at my desk at my home and Jack Martin I had got hold of and asked him, I found out that Martin was a, I knew that Martin was in the Organization and I thought that Martin was to sell me out, using me as the escapegoat [sic]. And I got mad at Martin and hung up with Martin and that’s when I received my telephone call from Crisman …telling me don’t worry about the [Garrison] investigation, that I was to go to someplace in Iowa that they couldn’t serve me there, and not to worry about it. I said “well, Jack is selling me out.” He said, “Don’t worry about Jack. Jack is himself leading the investigation in another direction, and he’s a, it’s going in the opposite direction… That Jack was the plant inside of it and would feeding information [sic], only the information he wanted Garrison to know. [...] Delsa: Okay. Now, to bring this down and put it on record. In our preliminary discussions before, later in your contact with the Organization, with Crisman, Crisman you found to be at these various Churches. Beckham: Uhum, uhum. Delsa: Now, you don't know this for a fact, but you spoke to us prior to this in a discussion, and told us who you believed set this system up in New Orleans. Will you tell us now, who do you think set this system up with the Church? Beckham: Well, I think Fred Crisman, because the Organization is all over the country. I'd rather not go into it now because there are different connections of people and other things, but I think Fred Crisman is the whole, front of the whole thing because he's not just a, he has too many contacts, too many, you know, he tells me who to contact. As a matter of fact, one time I was, had received a telephone call from a priest, and which you very well know his name, and I pronounce, starts with a "B", y'know. You had a thing in your file. [Ray Broshears]

It is interesting that groups such as these often adopt something, whether a name or a symbol, that seems innocuous at least, and can be mistakenly associated with something else benign or benevolent at best. Another good example is the States Rights Parties (or National SRP), which was an offshoot of KKK and JBS if I remember my history correctly: one of the founders' explicit comments was to the effect that membership in an organization with a name like that "wouldn't cause you to lose your job." Walker denied membership with the Minutemen in his WC deposition, even though he was recognized in Dallas and parts beyond as one of its "leaders." He was not asked about JBS membership. (I'm working from memory here again.) The National States Rights Party was founded circa 1957 by J.B. Stoner and Ed Fields. It was pretty small at the time but grew over the years. Members of the NSRP that are of interest - Guy Banister's secretary Delphine Roberts, Joe Milteer, Dan Burros. Burros name and address were in Oswald's address book. Dave

In the United States - or actually, a little before that - the first "Minute Men" were New England revolutionaries who would be "ready in a minute" to defend against British soldiers. For the most part, similarly named organizations are referring to being "ready in a minute." The Morris Minute Men whose patch you displayed, for example, are a non-profit volunteer organization providing emergency medical services to Morris Township and Morris Plains, New Jersey. They were formed in 1941, well before the "Minutemen" connected with Edwin Walker. The Morris Minute Men are not the medical corps for the Minutemen now volunteering to secure our southern borders! I'd be interested in hearing about "connections" between Minutemen and the Civil Air Patrol. I've been in contact with folks at CAP Headquarters about the supposed connection with them and one Colonel D Harold Byrd, who supposedly co-founded the CAP (but who I - associated with CAP from 1964 through 1978 myself - had never heard of), who was a friend of LBJ and who owned the TSBD. It would be interesting to hear what they've got to say about their "connections" with the extreme right .... The sysmbol of the "official" Minutemen was a cross-hairs in a circle. This was Bob's DPugh's organization. He wrote a monthly newsletter called "On Target" with this symbol on the front. Here's a small bit from http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2005/05/minuteman-history.html "Led by a Missouri man named Robert DePugh, the Minutemen not only believed that government had been infiltrated at its highest levels by Communists, but that a Communist takeover was virtually inevitable; therefore, they told their believers, you should arm yourselves with whatever weaponry would be effective as a counterforce to strike back when the takeover occurred. DePugh, a onetime associate of [JBS founder] Robert Welch before DePugh was dropped from the John Birch Society, also told his followers to harass "the enemy," and compiled at his headquarters a list of 1,500 people he identified as members of the "Communist hidden government," with the intent to assassinate them in the event of the Communist coup. The Minutemen soon became associated with groups like Wesley Swift's Church of Jesus Christ Christian, a Christian Identity church located in Hollywood. Swift preached the "two-seed" brand of Identity, holding that not only are white people are the true Israelites and descendants of Adam, but that blacks, Asians, and other non-whites thus are "pre-Adamic" people without souls, and Jews are either descendants of Satan himself (the offspring of conjugal relations with Eve) or practitioners of a Satanic religion. Among Swift's more notable adherents: retired Col. William Potter Gale, a former MacArthur aide who eventually became a key figure in Posse Comitatus; and a quiet-spoken Lockheed engineer named Richard Girnt Butler. Also in attendance at Swift's Sunday services was Keith Gilbert, a gunshop owner who also was a Minutemen member. Gilbert was arrested in 1965 and convicted for the theft of 1,400 pounds of TNT that he later said was part of a plot to plant a bomb under the stage of the Hollywood Palladium during an Anti-Defamation League convention, and to detonate it during the keynote speech by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. -- a plot only disrupted by his arrest. Other Minutemen were getting into trouble around the nation. The group was connected to an October 1966 plot, broken up by the FBI in New York City, to bomb three summer camps operated by liberal East Coast organizations. And illegal caches of weapons and ammunition linked to Minutemen kept popping up around the countryside. By this point, though, DePugh had decided to move into the political arena. Using the Minutemen's agenda as a platform, he formed the Patriotic Party and made public speeches around the country touting its potential in the wake of Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential election defeat. Two of those appearances were in Seattle in 1966. A mail-room employee of Seattle City Light named Duane I. Carlson put up $500 of his own money to sponsor the Northwest convention of the Patriotic Party at the Hyatt House. A few months later, DePugh made a stump speech for a November Patriotic Party gathering; some 600 people, paying $1 apiece, were in attendance. DePugh, however, only spoke to the crowd by a telephone hookup. The Minutemen's fearless leader was temporarily indisposed: he and an associate had been recently convicted on a variety of felony firearms violations and sentenced just the week before to four years in prison. Over the next year, DePugh fought that conviction, and managed to stay out of jail through a string of appeals. But the legal troubles started taking their toll on the organization's finances -- and pressure mounted to find alternative sources of revenue. Soon, Duane Carlson's activities moved well beyond public meetings. He gathered a group of six other Seattle-area men -- a longshoreman, a church sexton, a grocery clerk, a civilian driver at the Fort Lewis Army Base, a self-employed draftsman, and an unemployed ship's oiler -- and began plotting ways to finance the Minutemen's arms operations and strike a blow against the "Communist controlled" government at the same time. Their plan: set off a bomb at the city hall of a small Seattle suburb, Redmond, while simultaneously detonating another at the local power station, thereby creating a major distraction while taking out police communications at the same time. This would enable the gang to strike three Redmond banks they had targeted for a series of successive robberies. Their downfall, however, came when a federal informant infiltrated the group. On the day the Minutemen planned to strike -- January 26, 1967 -- the FBI swooped down on them in two parking lots, one in Bellevue and another in Lake City, where the conspirators were meeting to carry out their plot, and arrested all seven. DePugh denied they were part of his organization, claiming Carlson had been dropped from his rolls for "non-payment of dues." Federal prosecutors, who found evidence that DePugh actually was party to the plan from its early stages, put out a warrant for his arrest." --------------------------------------------------------- (Me) Walker became an "official" member of the Minutemen after he donated some money to DePugh. I'm sure Bill Turner could provide a lot more detail. Dave

I could not agree more. Bill Turner is also one of my heroes. It should not be forgotten the role that people like Turner and Hinckle played in challenging the Warren Commission report. Their work at Ramparts was vital in keeping the investigation alive. For example, Penn Jones’s work was only known to a few hundred people (the readers of the Midlothian Mirror), most of whom who were completely uninterested in the case, until Ramparts publicised his articles. Bill Turner’s book (The Fish is Red : the Story of the Secret War Against Castro, 1981) also focused attention towards the role that the anti-Castro Cubans played in the assassination. Bill Turner is also the most generous of writers. He never fails to respond to my questions concerning his investigations. I have not been able to get a copy of Joan Mellen’s book yet, but if she does attack important researchers like Bill Turner, her own credibility will be seriously undermined. I don't believe that Bill T or Garrison confused E.E. Bradley with Jim Braden. There were more than a few people that pointed the finger at Bradley. Some or all may have had ulterior motives. Specifically Carol Aydlotte. Here's a footnote from a seminar on the CDL. ( I hate to re-type) " Memo from Boxley to Garrison, March 19, 1968. Aydlotte had a falling out with Bradley after he allegedly got her kicked out of the John Birch Society. This may have been her way of getting back at him. For a full description of this incident, see Peter Noyes’ Legacy of Doubt. The memo covers quite a few interesting subjects. Aydlotte claims that her mother heard Bradley propose the use of the storm drain system as a location for the prospective assassination of JFK. A Reverend Brice, acquaintance of Bradley, told Garrison investigators that Bradley was supposed to meet with Ned Touchstone in Louisiana before proceeding to Dallas. Touchstone was the editor of The Councilor, a White Citizen’s Council newsletter based in Louisiana. " Bradley's next door neighbor also implicated him. Her long and rambling interview mentions strange comings and goings, Minutemen activity, traveling to Dallas, etc. All inuendo with no real substance though. Dave

Gerry, Fascinating stuff. I've often felt like a "mushroom" myself. (Ya get left in the dark and xxxx on.) On a side note, just a military history question, I wonder if you ever heard of a Cpt. E.A. Kearns (I think it was Edward). Kearns was mostly in Burma during WWII. I don't think he was with Merrill. After WWII, Kearns went on to head the MP/CID school at the Carlisle Barracks until the advent of the Korean War. Dave

Gerry, How much truth is in this article by Martino? Is he referring to 2nd Naval G? Is there anything to the claim that Castro was to be booted? Cuba and the Kennedy Assassination – by John Martino (Human Events. Jan, 1964) During the three years that I was incarcerated in Cuban prisons, former intimates told me of the Red dictator’s irrational hatred of President Kennedy. One Red publication, I remember, displayed a fake photograph showing the President and the First Lady careening drunk through the streets of Mexico City during their official visit in 1962. Another-the magazine Mella, featured a cartoon in which John F. Kennedy was depicted as a dope pusher injecting narcotics into the arm of a child. This almost insane hatred was not due to any belief that President Kennedy was strongly anti-communist. It was partly jealously [sic] on Castro’s part of the way that JFK’s personality had captured the imagination of the Cuban people. For almost six month’s, it has been assumed in Cuban circles in Miami and in Havana that the Kennedy Administration planned to eliminate Fidel Castro, his brother Raul; Che Guevara and various others through a putsch. Cuban exiles here understand that plans for this operation were cleared with a Soviet representative in Europe shortly after the missile crisis of last October (1962). The old-line communists inside the Castro regime were to take part in the operation together with Castro henchmen that were paid to switch sides. The plan involved a more or less token invasion from Central America to be synced with the coup. A left-wing coalition government was to be set up, including leaders of the Cuban Communist party. The most talked about candidate to head this “democratic” regime was Huber Matos, a former Castro commander, who is at the present the most privileged prisoner on the Isle of Pines. Matos enjoys a private room and a television set. He is allowed to strut around in his uniform as one of Castro’s commandants while decent and patriotic Cubans in the same prison suffer unspeakable tortures. The plan allegedly involved complete withdrawal of Soviet troops, release of all political prisoners, U.S. occupation of Cuba and a new government of the Tito or Ben Bella type. It was to be staged for February 1964. According to reports from usually reliable exile sources, Khrushchev had agreed to the plan because of the importance to the Soviet Union of re-electing the Democratic Administration. The plan provided that Castro and his fellow experts in murder and genocide were to be given safe conduct out of Cuba. From the Soviet standpoint, all that was involved was a slight tactical retreat in Cuba to be offset by advances on other Latin American fronts, such as Brazil and Chile. From Castro’s standpoint, however, it meant the end of his career as a world figure and refused to go along with it. Assassination of President Kennedy was a bold way of checkmating the plan. At a reception in the Brazilian Embassy in Havana in early September, Castro told newsmen that CIA agents had been sent to the island to kill him and Raul. If Kennedy was behind this, he added, the American President should realize that he was not the only politician that could engineer the assassinations of chiefs of state. This story was published in the Miami News on November 24. Meanwhile Emilio Nunez Portuondo, the distinguished former Cuban ambassador to the United Nations and one-time president of its Security Council, informed his friend and associate in Mexico, Dr. Jose Antonio Cabarga, of Castro’s threat. El Universal, one of Mexico’s leading newspapers, published the story as a front page exclusive. Immediately thereafter, the Mexican police arrested Cargaga for delivering the report to El Universal and beat him up so badly that he is now hospitalized. This is typical of the conduct of the Mexican police President Adolfo Lopez Mateos, whose pro-communist background and associations are myriad. For example, when Tito visited Mexico a few months ago, newspaper publishers were ordered to print only laudatory articles on the Yugoslav dictator. To prove to the world that Mexico has a free press, however, two or three critical articles were approved and ordered published. Immediately before the Tito visit, a few anti-communists students attempted to destroy posters praising the Balkan butcher. They were caught by the police, held incommunicado for a few days and subjected to tortures which leave no permanent scars. For example, one was hanged by the feet and repeatedly dropped on his head, but so lightly that his skull was not broken. The Cubans in the South Florida area have had dealings with Oswald in the past and they are not willing to join the press in dismissing him as a fanatic, a psychopath or a pathetic, maladjusted youth. When he was in Miami, Oswald attempted to join an organization of Americans engaged in training Cubans in guerrilla warfare, headed by Jerry Patrick. As a former Marine, Oswald would have been useful, but he failed to pass a security check and was turned down. Oswald made similar approaches to the Cuban Revolutionary Student Directorate (DRE) and to JURE, another organization of Cuban freedom fighters, but was rejected. Many Americans will never have used a psychologically unstable person of this sort and that they would have shunned Oswald because of his record of long and notorious Red associations. This is true as far as Soviet-oriented Reds are concerned. However, the Kremlin Communists were certainly innocent of complicity in the assassination for the simple reason that Khrushchev had no reason to desire Kennedy’s death. Fidel Castro probably had very few potential assassins in this country who were loyal to him rather than to Moscow. Those Reds who follow Castro tend t be more zealous and destructive elements in the movement, people consumed by hatred, not only of Western civilization, but of mankind in general. If Castro needed an assassin, he would have had to search among the Maoists, the Stalinists and the neo-Trotskyites-in another words, among people as disturbed, warped, hate-saturated and wicked as Oswald. The fact that the crime was committed in Dallas, a center of American conservative and nationalist movements, was probably not accidental. Had Oswald managed to escape to Cuba, the liberal press and the Establishment could have placed the entire blame for the murder of the President, not on America’s Communist enemies, but on those who love this country and wish to preserve its institutions and its heritage.

Amaury, Just a thanks to your father for all that he's done over the years. I'm sure that it hasn't been an easy life and I'm sure he sacrificed plenty. Dave

I'm not aware of any connection between Dr. John Lechner and Paulino Sierra, but that sounds intriguing. Dick, Here's what little I have on Lechner: Lechner, Executive Director of the Americanism Educational League, a political arm of the California American Legion. Lechner and Burt Mold met with Cuban exiles Cesar Blanco and Paulino Sierra in Chicago during the month of February 1963 to discuss writing a document on uniting the different Cuban exile factions. Mold and Lechner were the founders of a subcommittee of the Americanism Educational League called Americans for Cuban Freedom formed in 1961 after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Noted members were Guy Gabaldon, , Dr. Tirse Del Junco and W. Cleon Skousen. Dave

Crisman came to attention of Garrison with this letter: Mr. G; Out on the coast is a man you should talk with. Trace this information out. His name is Fred Lee Crisman, of Tacaoma, Wash. He flys to New Orleans steadily. 1964 eleven times. 1965, 17 times. 1966 32 times, 1967 24 times. He is the first man Clay called after being told he was in trouble and he is the first man that Beckham called also. He was questioned by both the CIA and FBI in 1966 but he is able to call Wash. and they laid off of him in a hurry. He is very good friends with Cubans and specially SA [sergio Arcacha] in Dallas (he goes there too) and J.R. [Jorge Rodriguez] in N.O. Mr. Crisman is a very odd man. He supplied money for certain political campaigns and in return is very much protected by both Lou. politicos and Wash. state people. He has a diplomatic passport issued on the word of a senate chairman of a committee. He seems to have no income and certainly spends a large sum of money on air travel. He is friends with F. Gremillion of your state. His private office has an unlisted number (206 Ma 7-4790) and is the meeting place for many odd characters from Cubans to political figures. Ask him to take a lie detector test and then ask him where he put the $200,000 dollars delivered to him by Beckham in August of '67. (Cuban Money) Money that is used to recruit killers to be sent to Cuba to try for Castro ask him if it is not true that he has sent 5 different men to S.A. in Dallas for final briefing. Make Crisman talk and you will have the answer to why there has been fighting among certain Cuban factions over the money in certain buried places. You know this is true because some special Cubans have dropped out of sight. (Dropped in Torpedo Junction) Crisman is also a pilot. He is the man that through Beckham and S.A. (Arcacha] paid off certain people is it not odd that he was a friend of Clay's as well as Beckham. Is it not strange that he knew Tippet! Just ask Crisman certain questions under a lie detector and see what the answers are. He is the one that advised Mark Evans [beckham's alias] to hide out in Iowa and NOT to go to N.O. to make any statement about money or anything. Have an investigator check out the amount of long distance calls that Beckham (Evans) has made to Crisman in the past year and the wild places Crisman calls. He is leaving for Europe in Jan. Keep digging Jim, you have some odd fish on the run. And Thomas Beckham told the HSCA investiagtors this about Crisman: Delsa: Okay. Now, to bring this down and put it on record. In our preliminary discussions before, later in your contact with the Organization, with Crisman, Crisman you found to be at these various Churches. Beckham: Uhum, uhum. Delsa: Now, you don't know this for a fact, but you spoke to us prior to this in a discussion, and told us who you believed set this system up in New Orleans. Will you tell us now, who do you think set this system up with the Church? Beckham: Well, I think Fred Crisman, because the Organization is all over the country. I'd rather not go into it now because there are different connections of people and other things, but I think Fred Crisman is the whole, front of the whole thing because he's not just a, he has too many contacts, too many, you know, he tells me who to contact. As a matter of fact, one time I was, had received a telephone call from a priest, and which you very well know his name, and I pronounce, starts with a "B", y'know. You had a thing in your file. [Ray Broshears]

Dick, One of the names in Nagell's address book was Dr. John Lechner, followed by "Americanism Educational League." Do you know why Nagell was investigating him? Was it his activities regarding Paulino Sierra? Dave

I believe the head of the Dallas area KKK was the Reverend Roy E. Davis. Davis was the editor of The Fiery Cross. From http://www.cuban-exile.com/doc_051-075/doc0062e.html Q: Was Dixon's name mentioned at anytime, the one in Dallas of the K.K.K. A: The only man in Dallas that he mentioned that was a good patriot down in Texas, and engineering a lot of activity there was a Mr. Davis a reverend Dr. Davis, a preacher, head of the Klu Klux Klan. He was a man who didn't worry about human life, that he worried about his nation now. I know of Davis for several years. This Milteer now says that he doesn't want too much talk about Kennedy anymore, now he is alledgeling his war against the Jews, and their associates. But the Klu Klux Klan and the Officials which were Mims and Bolings didn't seem too please with the assassination of the President. Their main purpose was to eliminate Martin Luther King and some of the negro leaders. But I don't know, they didn't give him any assurance of anything, except that they would go along with him with his political party, and that they would put out the pamphlets, when they were properly written and given to them. But they didn't indicate in anyway that they had known or assisted in the assassination of the President. But Milteer didn't give them too much chance to talk and discuss, he just issued orders, he carried on the conversation on what had been done, and what had to be done. And of course, these men from Denmark and Orangeburg seemed more enthused to go along with him on the assassination and that they appreciated the assassination of the President than Mims and Boling. ----------------------------- The Dallas PD first suspected that Davis was the publisher of the Wanted For Treason posters but an unnamed Dallas PD officer said it wasn't Davis because "he knew Davis and he didn't do it." Dave

--------------------- [...] There is no way that Seymour could have met up with LHO or Ferrie, as in his travels with Hall, he, like Howard, were never allowed to ever meet [or attend meetings] with Lester Logue, et al. in Dallas, or the VIP folks in Los Angeles. Seymour spent the maximum of his "off-duty" time working at shops, as did Bobby Willis -- and this was due to the fact that they didn't enjoy running around without beer money. [...] Later, Gerry Hemming ___________________________-- <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Gerry, How helpful were the Dallas VIPs (or LA for that matter) in funding anti-Castro operations? Were they all talk but short on funds? What (very) little I know, Lester Logue was somewhat helpful in setting up some meetings. (With NB Hunt, Jeb Rose?) Dave

Gary, Thanks for these. If I remember correctly, the "S" shooter hinted at by The Councilor was Emilio Santana. Dave

James, That I don't know but the answer might prove interesting. I believe Coyle was quite young in 1963.

In September 1963 Loran Hall was en route from LA to No Name Key with a trailer load of weapons when he was stopped and detained for questioning by the Dallas PD. FBI agent W. Harlan Brown was called in and he set Hall free. Brown was a senior Dallas agent working Neutrality Act matters. His partner was James Hosty. Some six weeks after the assassination a source close to the Dallas FBI office divulged that Hosty and Brown were running LHO as a potential criminal informaner. This ties in with the urgent attempts on 11/22 by a Dallas SO deputy, Buddy Walthers, to inform the Secret Service that Oswald was seen at the Harlandale safe house occupied by exile militants who split just before the assassination. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hall, Howard, and Celio Castro Alba managed to get some weapons from various sources. According to Howard the weapons consisted of a “. 30 caliber, there was a scope weapon, and there was M-1s, standard M-1 Girands and M-14, modified, strictly semi...” Some of these weapons were supplied by Ergiaga Arms Company owned by Juan Ergiaga, the former top arms ordinance man for Fidel Castro. The trailor also contained medical supplies. According to Harry Dean, Hall and Howard were given the medical supplies by Harry from Guy Gabaldon’s supply. The trailor was left in Dallas at Lester Logue's house. Now I'm going to talk out my arse and suggest that Hall left the semis to be converted to fully automatic by a local gun dealer. This would be John Masen. Hall and Bill Seymour came back a week later to pick up the trailor. It was on this return trip that Hall and Seymour were arrested for drug possession — a bottle of Dexedrine. While in custody, Hall was questioned by an FBI agent whom he identified as “Hostel or something”, a Military Intelligence agent, and a “CIA guy.” The “CIA guy” was probably ATF Agent Frank Ellsworth who was working closely with FBI agent James Hosty and Military Intelligence agent Ed Coyle on a gun smuggling case. He claimed that the MI Agent attempted to recruit him. Hall remained in jail for two days before being released. Hall had called Dr. Robert Morris who in turn called Lester Logue. Logue secured an attorney for Hall. As Gerry mentioned, Hall was probably an FBI informant and this is where he informed on Masen. Heck, he probably informed Hosty when he and Seymour were coming back to Dallas and the PD arrested him and Seymour on a trumped up "Dexedrine" possession charge that they found in the glove compartment. Dave

In September 1963 Loran Hall was en route from LA to No Name Key with a trailer load of weapons when he was stopped and detained for questioning by the Dallas PD. FBI agent W. Harlan Brown was called in and he set Hall free. Brown was a senior Dallas agent working Neutrality Act matters. His partner was James Hosty. Some six weeks after the assassination a source close to the Dallas FBI office divulged that Hosty and Brown were running LHO as a potential criminal informaner. This ties in with the urgent attempts on 11/22 by a Dallas SO deputy, Buddy Walthers, to inform the Secret Service that Oswald was seen at the Harlandale safe house occupied by exile militants who split just before the assassination. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hall, Howard, and Celio Castro Alba managed to get some weapons from various sources. According to Howard the weapons consisted of a “. 30 caliber, there was a scope weapon, and there was M-1s, standard M-1 Girands and M-14, modified, strictly semi...” Some of these weapons were supplied by Ergiaga Arms Company owned by Juan Ergiaga, the former top arms ordinance man for Fidel Castro. The trailor also contained medical supplies. According to Harry Dean, Hall and Howard were given the medical supplies by Harry from Guy Gabaldon’s supply. The trailor was left in Dallas at Lester Logue's house. Now I'm going to talk out my arse and suggest that Hall left the semis to be converted to fully automatic by a local gun dealer. This would be John Masen. Hall and Bill Seymour came back a week later to pick up the trailor. It was on this return trip that Hall and Seymour were arrested for drug possession — a bottle of Dexedrine. While in custody, Hall was questioned by an FBI agent whom he identified as “Hostel or something”, a Military Intelligence agent, and a “CIA guy.” The “CIA guy” was probably ATF Agent Frank Ellsworth who was working closely with FBI agent James Hosty and Military Intelligence agent Ed Coyle on a gun smuggling case. He claimed that the MI Agent attempted to recruit him. Hall remained in jail for two days before being released. Hall had called Dr. Robert Morris who in turn called Lester Logue. Logue secured an attorney for Hall. As Gerry mentioned, Hall was probably an FBI informant and this is where he informed on Masen. Heck, he probably informed Hosty when he and Seymour were coming back to Dallas and the PD arrested him and Seymour on a trumped up "Dexedrine" possession charge that they found in the glove compartment. Dave

James. Not to answer for Gerry, but Loran Hall claimed that he left it at Dr. Crockette's house in Miami. Crockette was a dentist. Dave

Banister also had contacts with the larger Mississippi Sovereignty Commission. By the way, Dave if I'm not mistaken Jeff Caufield told me that you had sent him a document from Milteer to Ned Touchstone. Could you post this? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hi Gary, I'm not sure were that one is buried but if I can find it, I'll post it. In my opinion, this was what Banister was doing with Oswald. LHO was performing info gathering for Banister on local leftist groups. Banister already had good connections with members of the far right: Lincoln Rockwell, Rainache, etc. His secretary Delphine Roberts was a vocal supporter of the National States Rights Party. Dave

Hon. W.M. Rainach Summerfield, Louisiana Dear Senator Rainach: Reference is made to our recent telephone conversation regarding the tentative plans for the formation of a State Sovereignty Commission. At that time, I told you of my interest in the position of Chief Investigator. I have for many years, supervised investigators in conducting investigations of matter which reason dictates will be similar to those the Commission will handle. I am qualified by practical experience, covering a period of more than 20 years, to train the Commissions investigators. I have served as a member of the teaching staff of (4) of the nations leading educational institutions. I have one of the largest libraries of its kind which is available to the Commission for research. I also have ample office space, which is available for Commission use, assuming that the Commission will need an office in New Orleans and that you will have your own stenographers, clerks, telephone service, etc. When you are in New Orleans or Baton Rouge, an appointment with you to discuss this matter further, would be appreciated. Sincerely yours, Guy Banister, President

Here's my old outdated "theory" on the motive - Disclaimer: This is just a half-formed kinda fuzzy “maybe” based upon what I read. I reserve the right to change my mind when I get more “data.” The only way to get Cuba back from Castro was to do two things: remove him by any means, and somehow invade and get a “government in exile” to get a toehold in Cuba and hold it for at least 24 hours. Doesn’t have to be a big force just well armed. But who should be the “government in exile?” Trying to understand Cuban exile politics can get very confusing. Who’s Left who’s Right who was a Castro supporter…If Cuba was freed, who would make up the government? Who would the exile community get behind? Artime? Carlos Prio? Mateo? Kohly? Forget anybody closely tied to Batista. How about Manolo Ray? Too far left. The US government may have gotten behind Artime. Hence the Second Naval Guerrilla. The problem with Artime is that if he became the new Presidente of Cuba, certain people’s interests would not be represented. This includes organized crime and big business. They needed to put their own person in there that they could control. The problem is most of the well known leaders were too independent and had too much political baggage. So, the person selected had to be bright, Cuban, no excess political baggage but controllable. Enter Paulino Sierra Martinez. To bring him on board, Burt Mold and John Lechner were sent to Chicago to make their pitch. Sierra accepted the conditions and the JGCE was formed. The money had to be tightly controlled by a subsidiary – Union Tank Car. The money controlled by someone high up the company chain – William Browder. Who were Mold and Lechner representing? (Lechner’s name and affiliation were found in Nagell’s notebook) The FBI and CIA were certainly curious. One theory was that he was being backed by “gamblers from out West.” (Jake Lansky) Another CIA/FBI theory was “oil men.” Most of these theories came from Sierra himself. A clue may be William Trull. Trull was Sierra’s temporary babysitter who disappeared after introducing Sierra around the Miami exile community. (Felipe Vidal among others) Trull was from Dallas, Texas and mentioned the King Ranch. Also, while Burt Mold may have had organized crime connections - he later worked in a Vegas Casino - I don’t see John Lechner in that role. Lechner was an old time anti-communist. He was Executive Director of the Americanism Educational League, which was an arm of the California American Legion. He was also very active in the American Committee to Free Cuba. He and Mold formed their own organization called Americans for Cuban Freedom. The American Committee to Free Cuba is a very interesting org that has a very interesting membership. The ACFC had many right wing extremists – California Rangers, Christian Defense League, etc. Some names of note: Robert A. Surrey, Gen. Walker’s right hand man, Kent Courtney, Hon. John Rousselot, Steve Foote, Harry Von Zell, and Jose Norman. Norman gave Loran Hall the money to get Hemming’s rifle out of hock. The check was from the ACFC. Hall knew many of these people and would give inspirational fund raising talks before many of these people. The HSCA was very interested in this group. (I’m getting too long winded here.) It was John Rousselot that gave Gerry Hemming, and because he tagged along, Loran Hall a lot of good contacts and sources of funds in Dallas. (Harry Dean mentions John Rousselot as one of the planners/money men behind the actual assassination plot.) Hall dogged Hemming and eventually started meeting with most of Hemming’s contacts behind his back. Hall made his pitch for what eventually evolved into the Bayo-Pawley raid. He claimed that it was his and John Martino’s idea. Hall, Martino and Rip Robertson met in Robertson’s room and formulated a plan. This was an assassination attempt on the Castro brothers (scheduled for July 26) disguised as a planned raid to capture Russians that would come back and tell the world that the missiles were still in Cuba. Some of the funds came from Hall’s friend Santo Trafficante. The mission left without Hall. Eddie “Bayo” Perez was allegedly captured in Cuba but as late as Sept 1963, Perez’s brother-in-law Luis Angel Castillo AKA ANTONIO ELORIAGA-REYES was trying to get into Cuba to get him out.. So Part One was a no go. Later, Hall went back to visit Robert Morris, Dan Smoot, Lester Logue, H.L. Hunt, Nelson Hunt, Gen Walker and later hooked up with Wiley Yates, Wally Welsh and Nico Crespi. It was in Lester Logue’s office that Hall met most of the moneymen. Hall mentioned that a “Jack” who owned a trucking firm (possibly J.E. Rose from Rose Truck Line) offered him $50,000 to shoot Castro’s boss, the guy in Washington. Hall “declined” at the time. Hall continued his fund raising by flashing his letter from Manolo Ray around and writing letters back to Ray but never mailing them. Back to Sierra. Sierra was throwing money around and starting to make some headway in meeting with all the various anti-Castro factions and came to the notice of people in Washington. (Possibly through his fellow Chicagoan, Morris Leibman?) Sierra and Reinaldo Pico (Later involved in Watergate) visit Artime’s Latin American camps. Pico reporting to Bernard Barker at his time in August 1963. Aug 17, 1963 he goes to Washington to visit a member of the State Dept. John Crimmins(?). Not sure of the content of the meeting though. By September 1963 things start to fall apart for Sierra. People are complaining that he is spending too much money on himself. He is called back to Chicago and warned by William Browder. He is still left in charge of the Junta but his “coalition” failed to materialize. Part Two failed. All these weapons and people are in Guatemala and Nicaragua just waiting to invade. Hmm…. maybe if a communist killed JFK, the invasion would still go on. Around this same time, Homer Echevarria was heard to say that they’d get plenty of money after they took care of JFK. This was the Chicago plot. This was foiled so then it was on to Dallas. Dave

Tim, John, Dick Russell had some interesting information on Weisman, Schmidt and Walker in his original verson of The Man Who Knew Too Much. He managed to track down and interview Weisman and also interviewed Walker. He also had some interesting information on what happened to Schmidt just after the assassination. It's been a while since I read Russell's book but I believe Schmidt was beat up and told to keep his mouth shut. Dave

Gordon Hall was a long time "observer" of the extremist movement. I believe he is mentioned in Frank Donner's "The Age of Surveillence." He collected vast amounts of extremist literature and worked with the local FBI and until he mentioned J.E. Hoover by name.... Hall was also close to certain far rightists. When George Lincoln Rockwell (head of the American Nazi Party) was arrested, he called Hall to bail him out of jail.

Gary, Great stuff. I have somewhere, a 27 page transcript of a taped (bugged) conversation in car with "Scotty" and two guys from, if I remember correctly, Oklahoma. They were sent by Gen. Clyde Watts to try and get Duff to admit to shooting at Walker and were trying to hire him again to finish the job. Duff was helping them to scout out Walker's place. Nothing incriminating on the the tape though. I believe this was circa June 1963 and came from the Dallas PD. Dave

[ <{POST_SNAPBACK}> <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Jefferson The source is Gabaldon, so stated by him and known to we his fellow anti-Castro anti-Kennedy associates, re; Kennedy's June 1962 visit. Guy Gabaldon, former U.S. Marine WW2, movie Hell to Eternity re; his heroic deeds, now about age 80, ran for U.S. Congress 1964 {lost}. 1962/63 with finacial assists from others organized DAC, Drive against Communism, leagued with John Birch Society leader{s} to become DACA, Drive Against Communist Aggression, Southern California and Mexico City.......... H. Dean <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hey Harry, I hope all is well with you. As you have mentioned before, Loran Hall was Gabaldon's campaign manager in 1964. And didn't Gabaldon help gather all the medical supplies for Hall, Howard and Celio Castro Alba (aka Juarito) to bring to Miami by way of Dallas? (Along with some weapons they picked up at Clint Wheat's house) Dave