David Boylan
-
Posts
1,056 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Store
Posts posted by David Boylan
-
-
A League of Their Own:
A Look Inside the Christian Defense League
By David Boylan*
The United States during the 1950s experienced an unparalleled growth of extremist organizations from the John Birch Society on the right to the Fair Play for Cuba Committee on the left. The heating up of the Cold War, the Supreme Court's decision to end segregation in 1954, and the establishment of a Communist Cuba in 1959 spurred this growth. One of the lesser known but more influential right wing fringe organizations that were formed during this period was the Christian Defense League (CDL). The CDL managed to meld anti-communism, anti-Semitism, anti-Castro activities, and a hatred of the "liberal" policies of the Kennedy Administration into a cohesive whole. It is in this context that the CDL will be examined.
The driving forces behind the rise of the CDL were Reverend Wesley A. Swift and Colonel William Potter Gale. It seemed inevitable that they would gravitate toward each other. Their religious beliefs were similar: both were adherents of what is now called Christian Identity, an updated version of the earlier British Israelite Movement that originated in the late nineteenth century. Christian Identity adherents believe that those of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Nordic, or Aryan origin were the true Israelites, "the sons of Adam", and that those of Jewish origin were "the sons of Satan."[1]
The origin of the Christian Defense League is clouded. Some accounts credit its founding to the Reverend Swift[2], while Colonel Gale gives credit to Reverend San Jacinto Capt[3]. Capt, a Baptist minister, was one of the early pioneers in the Identity Movement.[4] Gale says "the idea of the Christian Defense League was entirely that of Reverend San Jacinto Capt. He proposed it to me [Col. Gale] who prepared the initial material in the form of a letter entitled, "The NAACP represents the negro; the ADL represents the Jews; who represents YOU — the white Christian?"[5]
Gale, again speaking in the third person, claims, "...others were brought to Dr. Swift's [identity Churches] by Colonel Gale, it was decided that the time was appropriate for reactivation of the Christian Defense League [CDL], which had been in ‘limbo' these past years."[6] In early 1964, the CDL was officially incorporated with Richard G. Butler as President; attorney Bertrand L. Comparet, Vice President; Steve Foote,[7] Western Regional Director; and Rear Admiral, USN (Ret) John G. Crommelin, Eastern Regional Director.[8]
Swift began as a "Ku Klux Klan organizer and Klan rifle-team instructor."[9] In 1946, Swift formed the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian whose fundamental ideology was that Jesus Christ was not Jewish but Christian and that "pure blooded whites are the lost children of Israel."[10] By 1953, Swift had become Reverend Gerald L. K. Smith's West Coast representative of the Christian Nationalist Crusade.[11] Smith, a former member of William Pelley's Silver Shirts and friend of Henry Ford, was a "godfather" to many on the far right. By the early 1960s, Swift's string of "Identity" churches spread throughout California.
In contrast to the somewhat uneducated Swift was the more impressive William Potter Gale. Under General MacArthur, Gale became the youngest Lt. Col. in the U. S. Army, where he trained Filipino guerrillas to fight the Japanese. After retiring from the Army in June of 1950, Gale, like many retired military officers, found employment in the aircraft industry, specifically Hughes Aircraft. This became what he described as his "Jekyll and Hyde" period; leading the Hollywood life by entertaining actors and singers, but hiding his growing involvement in the Identity movement. At this same time, he became a member of the Republican Party and later the Constitution Party. He ran for Governor of California on the Constitution Party ticket in 1958 and 1966, and the Republican ticket in 1962.
Gale's association with Wesley Swift came about through San Jacinto Capt. Capt, a former Klansman like Swift, introduced Swift to Gale after a meeting in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. Gale in turn introduced Richard Butler to Swift initiating their long-term relationship. Butler is the founder and current leader of Aryans Nations.
William Gale managed to land the CDL a financial "angel" in the person of James Oviatt.[12] Oviatt, owner of Oviatt Clothiers, donated money and office space at 617 S. Olive St. in Los Angeles for the CDL headquarters.[13] It was Gale's success that eventually brought about the demise of the CDL. Swift claimed that the financial success of the CDL was hurting his church offerings. Gale and Capt agreed to take a backseat to Butler, Comparet, Crommelin and Foote in order to avoid a conflict with Swift.
The Reverend Oren Potito represented Swift's church on the East Coast. Potito, a one-time organizer for the National States Rights Party (NSRP), was the 1962 campaign manager for Admiral John Crommelin.[14] Potito and Gale joined with other members of the NSRP in journeying to Oxford, Mississippi to protest against the enrollment of James Meredith. Potito was arrested for possession of firearms that were found in the trunk of his car.[15]
One of Swift and Gale's more notorious associates was Charles Conley "Connie" Lynch. Lynch was simultaneously a minister in the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian, state organizer for the NSRP, a member of the Minutemen, and a member of the CDL. He became one of Swift's first ministers after he left the church of the General Assembly of Jesus Christ where he cut his teeth as a self-taught minister. Lynch became politically active during the early 1960s when he became the California State organizer for the NSRP (1962) and a member of the CDL in fall of 1963. The FBI considered him sufficiently dangerous to conduct an investigation to determine his whereabouts on November 22, 1963. It was determined that Lynch was in "Jacksonville, Florida, speaking at Ku Klux Klan rallies during the last two months."[16] His extremism became too much for even the NSRP. Dr. Edward Fields, NSRP information director said, "He raised more money than any other man we had. But he was too extreme. He scared away the more substantial elements of the community."[17]
Lynch's notoriety reached its peak in June of 1964 when he joined local Klansmen and NSRP leader J. B. Stoner[18] in what has been termed St. Augustine's [Fla.] worst racial violence in a century. Lynch was arrested the following month along with J. B. Stoner, Barton Griffin, Bill Coleman, and Jacksonville Klan leader Paul Cochran for illegal cross burning.[19] Stoner later became James Earl Ray's attorney. He was also a suspect in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King and was investigated by the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
The paramilitary side of the CDL/CJCC was the California Rangers, sometimes referred to as the U.S. Rangers. Formed in 1959 by William Gale, it never grew as large as its better-known cousin, the Minutemen. Robert DePugh, founder of the Minutemen, knew William Gale and structured his organization after Gale's Rangers.[20] The purpose of the Rangers was to build an underground network to conduct guerrilla warfare. Gale's recruiting efforts were directed toward former military servicemen. He transferred his American Legion membership to the Signal Hill post where he and George King, Jr., also a member of the CDL, converted the post into a front for the Rangers.[21]
Much like their Minutemen cousins, the CDL believed in hoarding a large supply of arms and weaponry. A police raid on William Garland's house in Cucamonga, California turned up eight machine guns, and one hundred rifles, shotguns and pistols. When they searched his barn they found an ammunition dump for heavy caliber rockets, bombs, and thousands of rounds of ammunition.[22]
The first indication that the Swift/Gale complex was interested in more than preaching religion came from George Harding in April 1963 when he informed the FBI that he was being recruited to become part of an eight man team to assassinate three hundred public officials in high positions of government. According to WCD 39 and WCD 1107 "Harding claimed that the leaders in the group were Dr. Wesley Swift, James Shoup and others.... The second in command was a Colonel William Gale...who was supposed to have been the youngest intelligence officer under MCARTHUR (sic)."
A related incident also occurred that April. Los Angeles physician Dr. Stanley Drennan approached Captain Robert K. Brown, who was also involved in anti-Castro activities during this period, stated that "while at Drennan's home, Drennan stated in general conversation that he could not do it, but what the organization needed was a group of young men to get rid of Kennedy and the Cabinet…Brown stated that he considered the remark crackpot; however …he gained the impression that Drennan had been propositioning him on this matter. Drennan, a member of the National States Rights Party and associate of William Gale." Drennan complained in a letter to Dean Clarence Manion, a prominent member of the John Birch Society, that on June 10, 1963 two Secret Service agents visited two of his friends at 7:30 am to inquire about his "patriotism, integrity, dependability, and emotional and mental stability. These people were twenty miles East of my dwelling while I was only two miles from where the President was riding in an open convertible sitting high on the back of the seat."[23]
The Secret Service and FBI generated another report in August 1963 by the arrest of Gale's associate George King, Jr. King was overheard discussing the possibility of assassinating the president and was later arrested that month for the sale of illegal firearms. A later FBI field report, CO2-26104 #6419, stated "King is extreme right wing, hates Jews, was arrested by ATF O'Neil for illegal possession of firearms. Emotionally unstable. Arrested 2-29-68 again. This time for CCU, John Bircher, Christian Def. League (sic), Am National Socialist Party, Christian Defense League."[24]
There was yet another pre-assassination report (November 15, 1963) of a plot to assassinate "the President and other high-level officials" by a "militant group of the National States Rights Party."[25] The FBI dismissed the report because they felt the subject was trying to make a deal because of pending criminal charges. This was not the well-documented November 9, 1963 report of Joseph A. Milteer's accurate prediction that Kennedy would be shot "from an office building with a high powered rifle." [26] Milteer was also a member of the NSRP and ran for governor of Georgia on the Constitution Party ticket the same year that William Gale switched from the Constitution Party to the Republican Party to run for governor of California.
Evidence suggests that Gale and Milteer were acquainted.[27] Both attended the gathering of the Constitution Party in Indianapolis, Indiana during October 18-20, 1963. Also in attendance were notable right wing extremists General Pedro Del Valle, Curtis Dall of the Liberty Lobby, Colonel Arch Roberts who was the architect of General Edwin Walker's "Pro Blue" program in the military, Richard Cotten, editor of The Conservative Viewpoint, Jack Brown, Klan leader James Venable[28], and Kenneth Goff, Constitution Party Committee member and leader of the paramilitary group Soldiers of the Cross, a Minutemen affiliate.[29] Goff wrote an article for The White Sentinel, that Oswald "called me, before a meeting in a Dallas hotel about a year ago (December 1962) he poured out his pro-Communist venom….His Red record was no secret to those fighting Communism in the Texas area."[30]
In a document that the FBI sent to the Miami Police Department titled Re: CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICAN PARTIES OF THE UNITED STATES, an unnamed source stated that Milteer had been to the West Coast where he was in contact [name redacted] believed to be in the vicinity of Los Angeles. Milteer stated that the meeting was very profitable. The source then went on to describe a speech given by William Gale on December 22, 1963 where Gale says, "I know some of you out there are FBI Agents, so get out your pads and make notes so that I'll not be misquoted." [31]
Another incident where Gale and Milteer's paths may have crossed was the now infamous Birmingham church bombing where four young African-American girls where killed. According to the House Select Committee on Assassinations Final Report (p. 377):
Information from a Mobile, Ala., FBI report indicated an informant had told the Bureau that Sidney Barnes and several others had gone to Birmingham, Ala., in the fall of 1963 to kill Dr. King. The FBI also learned that a secret meeting had been held in Birmingham before the September 15, 1963, bombing of a Birmingham church that left four young Black girls dead. Barnes, William Potter Gale, Noah Jefferson Carden and John C. Crommelin attended this meeting. The FBI had attempted to determine the whereabouts of the participants in the 1963 Birmingham meeting during the week following Dr. King's assassination. The Bureau files reflected that the FBI ended its investigation of Barnes after it found no indication he was away from his home before or after the assassination.
An FBI report out of Miami said that Gale and Governor George Wallace had a close relationship and that "Gale is responsible for the church bombing in Birmingham on September 15, 1963." Circuit Judge Seymour Gelber, former assistant to Florida State Attorney Richard Gerstein, diary reveals that "before they parted, Milteer confided to Somersett he was certain that Dixie Klan Imperial Wizard Jack Brown either placed the bomb, or engineered the act, which caused the death of four children in the Birmingham church bombing." The FBI later determined that Jack Brown was in Tennessee when the church was bombed.
The Miami FBI office reported that an informant furnished information on October 27, 1963 that Gale "is on the East Coast in the Southern part, exact location not given on important business." A report filed by the Miami police department's intelligence unit stated "On Monday 28 October 1963, I contacted informant known to us as "88" (William Somersett), and information obtained from him is as follows: "88" attended a CONSTITUTIONAL PARTY OF AMERICA in Indianapolis, Indiana, last week. While there at this convention he met numerous persons known to this office as extremists and troublemakers. Information obtained by "88" is that KENNETH GULF [sic] Goff, and COLONEL GALE are coming to Florida in an attempt to stir up the people down here; probably on the lower east coast. His information is that they want to train and recruit men for physical action. This is going to be a "Hate Campaign" according to "88".[32]
Another FBI airtel dated November 18, 1963 "Miami advised that on November 17, 1963 [deleted] (Racial) had been advised by [deleted] the whereabouts of GALE, but indicated that GALE is ‘working underground', and that he was not in position to disclose GALE's whereabouts."[33] An FBI informant wrote Jim Garrison on May 10, 1968 that in 1963, three top members went to Montgomery, Alabama where one of them met George Wallace. Another wanted to meet with the top four groups of the Ku Klux Klan to unite them through the membership of the CDL.[34] FBI informant Willie Somersett provided additional evidence of this meeting. He again met with Joseph Milteer on February 17, 1964. Milteer described a secret meeting in Alabama prior to September 15, 1963 where discussions where made about "getting things done." Milteer told Somersett that he agreed with the plan to bomb the church but did not participate. Milteer further stated that [Swift and Gale] are moving fast in California. He stated, "they have formed a group known as the Christian Defense League with the main purpose of raising funds for the use of Patriots."[35]
The Garrison investigation also produced a wealth of information about the same California anti-JFK crowd. Gerry Patrick Hemming, who got to know many of these people in his efforts to fight Castro in the 1960s, stopped by Garrison's office on July 7, 1967. He gave Garrison a list of names "as being of possible interest to [Garrison's] investigation." The first was Dennis Harber[36] "who was connected to both [Loran] Hall and [Lawrence] Howard in Miami in an attempt to blow up ships in Vera Cruz. Apparently a ‘Mexican Minuteman', tutor to someone, a homosexual, and recently visited Nebraska."[37] The second was Colonel Gale. Described as "active in the local Minutemen army in Southern California. Has offices in downtown Los Angeles. Friendly with General Walker and Lincoln Rockwell and stayed at Walker's house in July 1963. Patrick mentioned a Eugene Lyons in connection with Colonel Gale, and that one BOB WELLS[38] is also associated with Gale."[39] Rockwell, the founder of the American National Socialist Party, was assassinated in 1967 by former party member John Patler. Longtime researcher Mary Ferrell noted that Rockwell's name and address is contained in Lee Harvey Oswald's address book. Eugene Lyons was a member of the American Committee to Free Cuba (ACFC) and a member of the Citizens Committee to Free Cuba.
There was an overlap in membership between the CDL and the ACFC. Steven Foote, Western Regional Director of the CDL, was a board member of the ACFC. Curiously enough, so was Dr. John Lechner. Lechner, Executive Director of the Americanism Educational League, a political arm of the California American Legion, is listed in Richard Case Nagell's notebook.[40] 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. Sierra did more than write a document. 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.[41] Noted members were the previously mentioned Steve Foote, Guy Gabaldon, associate of Hall and Howard, Dr. Tirse Del Junco and W. Cleon Skousen.
Also of interest to Garrison was G. Clinton Wheat of Los Angeles. Wheat has been identified as an ex-Klansman that hosted meetings at his house of the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian, the Christian Defense League and the American National Socialist Party.[42] An FBI informant described the speakers at Wheat's house as giving "classic examples of the hate-mongers sermons." He also goes on to describe William Gale as saying, "...I can show you top-secret documents that prove that the six million Jews Hitler was supposed to kill are right here in America...." Garrison had information that in September of 1963, Wheat had meetings at his house where discussions were held on assassinating the President, and according to a former neighbor, traveled to Dallas that same fall (1963) in a hurry after borrowing four hundred dollars from him.[43] Lawrence Howard further identified Wheat's house at Lafayette Terrace in Los Angeles as a place "where paramilitary organizations held meetings and prepared ammunition."[44] Wheat disappeared shortly after Garrison attempted to have him subpoenaed, reportedly on orders "from headquarters." [Gale?] He was reported to be hiding out at Fred Lee Crisman's ranch in Oregon[45] before moving to Burney, California from where he disappeared altogether.[46]
Crisman is another intriguing character that became a subject of interest by both Jim Garrison and the House Select Committee on Assassinations. He first came to Garrison's attention after an anonymous letter was sent from Orlando, Florida linking him to Clay Shaw, Sergio Arcacha Smith, and Thomas Beckham. The anonymous writer further tried to implicate Crisman as a courier of funds between certain individuals and "Cuban factions" imploring Garrison to place him under a lie detector and ask him "certain questions."[47]
There was enough information on Crisman that the House Select Committee on Assassinations made him a subject of their investigation. The Committee sent investigators Robert Buras and L. J. Delsa to Jackson, Mississippi to question Thomas Beckham about his association with the now deceased Fred Crisman on October 9, 1977. Beckham had quite an interesting tale to tell. He claimed that Crisman belonged to a group called "The Organization" and that it had connections all over the country. Beckham credited Crisman's connections to "The Organization" in helping locate Beckham in Lincoln, Nebraska where he "took off after the assassination of the President." Crisman suggested that he relocate to Omaha where Garrison couldn't reach him. [48] This may be the reason for Dennis Harber's "recent visit to Nebraska" as previously noted by Gerry Hemming during his July 7, 1967 visit to Garrison.
Two other figures that were heavily investigated by the Warren Commission, District Attorney James Garrison and the HSCA also had ties to Wheat, Gale, Swift, and Butler. They are the previously mentioned Loran Hall and Lawrence Howard. Howard told Steve Burton, investigator for Garrison, that Richard Butler introduced him and Steven Justin Wilson to Gale and Swift after a meeting in which Wesley Swift spoke.[49] Butler also introduced Howard to Hall in the spring of 1963.[50] This was possibly the "talk" that Hall referred to during an interview with Bill Triplett of the HSCA. Jose Norman, another board member of the American Committee to Free Cuba and member of the John Birch Society's Speaker's Bureau, brought Howard and his wife Rose to a doctor's house in Whittier, California to hear Hall give one of his fund raising speeches.[51] Norman also admitted to being a guest at Clint Wheat's house. [52] Hall stated that he also met Edgar Eugene Bradley, Ed Collins, Dr Stanley Drennan, and Colonel Gale at Wheat's house. [53]
It was at Clint Wheat's house that Hall, Howard, and "Juarito" a.k.a. Celio Castro Alba, picked up a trailer of weapons and a large supply of medical supplies to bring to Miami for anti-Castro activities.[53b] According to Howard the weapons consisted of a ". 30 caliber, there was a scope weapon, [54] and there was M-1s, standard M-1 Girands an M-14, modified, strictly semi..."[55] Some of these weapons were supplied by Erquiaga Arms Company owned by Juan Erquiaga, the former top arms ordinance man for Fidel Castro. The trailer carrying these weapons was left at Lester Logue's house in Dallas on October 10, 1963. Logue, an oil geologist, was a friend of Hall's. Hall admitted that it was in Logue's office that he was offered fifty thousand dollars to assassinate JFK but he declined. He added that Lester Logue had nothing to do with the offer and left the room after the offer was made.[56]
This was not the only offer made to assassinate Kennedy or Fidel Castro by "Lester Logue's people." Gerry Hemming and Howard Davis, who were in Dallas at the Texas Club to raise funds for anti-Castro activities, were approached to assassinate Kennedy after initial discussions on the feasibility to assassinate Fidel Castro. Hemming was asked " Why go to Havana when the whole thing could be resolved by going to Washington?" After Hemming and Davis declined, "a group from that same origin" traveled from Dallas to Miami where they met with Tony Cuesta and made the same proposal to Cuesta and Alpha 66.[57]
Hall and William Seymour traveled from Miami the following week to retrieve the trailer of weapons and medical supplies. 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.[58] Logue secured an attorney for Hall.[59]
A close look at Hall and Howard's associates explains why the various investigations took such an interest in them. Hall testified to receiving money from Mafioso Sam Giancana ($20,000 - 30,000), went on a mission with ex-CIA paramilitarist William "Rip" Robertson, just missed going on the now infamous Bayo-Pawley raid on Cuba,[60] went with Rip Robertson to John Martino's house in Miami, visited General Edwin Walker with Gerry Hemming, admitted to having heard of Lee Oswald in June of 1963 and testified that he was offered $50,000 to kill Kennedy but that he declined the offer. [61]
Howard's associations are just as interesting as Hall's. Howard was second in command to Gerry Hemming at No Name Key before assuming full command with William Seymour as his second. Howard, Seymour and friends, along with fifty of Rolando Masferrer's men from New York spent the summer of 1963 preparing to overthrow "Papa Doc" Duvalier in Haiti in the hope that they could establish a base close to Cuba for anti-Castro operations.[62]
Howard's connections were wide reaching. Some of the people that he claimed to know and who's names appeared in his address book were: Pedro Diaz Lanz; Frank Fiorini [Sturgis] of Watergate fame; Frank Fernandez of Dallas; oilman Lester Logue; Clint Wheat; William Gale; Larry Laborde; Enrique Molina Rivera who Hemming and Howard claimed was a Castro agent; Alexander Rorke, who disappeared along with Geoffrey Sullivan in Rorke's airplane September 25, 1963; Richard Butler; former Batista official Rolando Masferrer Rojas and his brother Kiki; Captain Robert K. Brown[63], Dr. Grennan [Dr. Stanley Drennan][64]; Eddie Field, "right winger" was also a friend of John Lechner; Roy Hargraves; Nico Crespi; Dr. Robert Morris whom he was very reluctant to admit knowing; Cuban exile leader Tony Varona who thought Howard was double-crossing him because of Howard's relationship with former Batista henchman Rolando Masferrer; Renee Valdez, Los Angeles representative of the Cuban exile group Alpha 66; and Edgar Eugene Bradley whom he described as "a man who believed in action."[65] Bradley was described by Carol Aydlotte as an associate of Col. William Gale and that she was certain that she saw him at Clint Wheat's house with Loran Hall and Gordon Novel. Peter Noyes suggests in his book Legacy of Doubt that she may have had an ulterior motive in linking Bradley to Gale although Bradley admitted that he once gave a speech at Clint Wheat's house.[66]
In October of 1963, Gale and Swift presided over a meeting of the Christian Knights of the Invisible Empire in which thirty-eight members were inducted into the Klan. The CKIE was the "Third Front" in a four front structure. The "First Front" was the Church of Jesus Christ, Christian. Faithful members of the CJCC were recruited for the "Second Front" was the AWAKE movement.[67] The more militant members were then recruited in to the "Third Front" which was the Christian Knights of the Invisible Empire "which will have the outward impression of a political-religious group not interested in violence." It was from this group that the most militant members were recruited for the "Inner Den." These recruits were the ones that committed acts of violence. Gale stated that "leaders in our country might have to be eliminated to further the goals of the CKIE" and that "God will take care of those who must be eliminated."
Swift and Gale soon struggled for control of the organization. It came to a head on December 26, 1963 when they had a "violent argument and decided to split."[68] Gale was left in charge of the Christian Knights and Swift assumed leadership of the Christian Defense League until it went inactive again. Gale told his biographer Cheri Seymour a conflicting account of the split. He claimed that Swift "took some money from some widows...two elderly ladies. That's the official version. Nothing to do with the Church."[69]
After the split, Gale put all his efforts into his ministry. He began publishing a magazine called "Racial and National Identity"[70] in 1965, at the request of "a bunch of military officers...Colonel Ben Von Stahl, Admiral Crommelin and General Pedro del Valle." He continued to be active in the Identity Movement by forming his own group called the Ministry of Christ Church. In 1969-70, he joined forces with former Silver Shirt Henry Beach to launch the Posse Commitatus movement.[71] Colonel Gale died in April 1988 of complications brought about by emphysema.
Wesley Swift died in 1970, leaving Richard G. Butler to lead the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian. Butler moved the headquarters to Hayden Lake, Idaho and renamed the organization to Aryan Nations-Church of Jesus Christ, Christian. Butler, although now in his early eighties, is still a leading figure in the Identity Movement.
James K. Warner reformed the Christian Defense League in the early 1977. Warner is a former member of Rockwell's American National Socialist Party, the National States Rights Party, Sons of Liberty, and current publisher of Christian Vanguard. He moved from California to Metarie, Louisiana in the middle 1970s after he met David Duke who was then a member of the Klan. Duke became an unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1988. In 1983, Dr. John Coleman joined the CDL as its "intelligence expert." Coleman produced a series of audiotapes on the "secrets of the Kennedy assassination." The CDL is no longer the force it was in the early 1960s, although its influence can still be seen in today's extreme right wing movement in both its "Identity" teachings and the continued formation of small paramilitary groups and militias.
* I'd like to thank Larry Haapanen, Anna-Marie Kuhns-Walko, Joe Backes, and Jeff Caufield for their help.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Gale, “Children of God vs. Children of Satan,” in Identity, June 1973, p. 3.
[2] Michael and Judy Newton, The Ku Klux Klan (New York: Garland Publications,. c1991), p. 109.
[3] Author? , “A Reply to the National Chronicle,” in Identity, November 1975, p. 5
[4] Cheri Seymour, Committee of the States: Inside the Radical Right (Mariposa, CA: Camden Communications 1991) 87. Most of Gale’s history has been derived from this book.
[5] Identity, p. 3.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Foote was the California State Chairman of the American Legion and a friend of Dr. John Lechner.
[8] Shasta County Chronicle, 13, no. 10, April 9, 1964. This paper would soon change its name to the National Chronicle. The editor, Hal Hunt, followed Richard Butler up to Hayden Lake, Idaho where it continued publication.
[9] William Turner, Power on the Right (Ramparts Press. Berkeley CA. 1971), p 100.
[10] Newton, p. 113.
[11] Newton, p. 167.
[12]Ibid.
[13] Oviatt attempted to sue the Anti-Defamation League for $10 million in January 1966. Oviatt’s attorney was Senator Jack Tenney. Richard Cotten’s Conservative Viewpoint, February 10, 1966 p. 2.
[14] Turner, p. 101
[15] Seymour, p. 68.
[16] WCD 1107. According to WCD 42, the information on Lynch’s whereabouts was furnished by Gene Fallow, officer of the Ku Klux Klan, Oceanway, Florida. Documents courtesy of Larry Haapanen.
[17]Trevor Armbrister, “Portrait of an Extremist,” in Saturday Evening Post, August 22, 1964
[18] See Jerry Rose’s article on Stoner, The Fourth Decade, 3, no.1, November 1995, p. 26.
[19] Armbrister, “Portrait of an Extremist”,
[20] John George and Laird Wilcox, National Socialists, Communists, Klansmen and Others on the Fringe (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Book, 1992).
[21] Thomas C. Lynch, 1965 California Attorney General’s Report on Private Armies in California.
[22] George Thayer, The Farther Shore of Politics (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1967) p. 145.
[23] Letter from Drennan to Clarence Manion dated July 20, 1963.
[24] This is extracted from RIF 180-10118-10033. This document courtesy of Joe Backes.
[25] Warren Commission Document 762
[26] FBI informant Willie Somersett told the Miami police on November 26, 1963 that “I am satisfied that this man beyond doubt knew that this was going to happen, and from the impression that I got from him this conspiracy originated in New Orleans, probably some in Miami, and different parts of the Country, probably in California. And I am pretty sure California had a lot to do with it, because he mentioned Dr. Swift very often, in his conversations, what a great man he was and that he had already predicted that Kennedy would be killed, before he got out of office. So, that is about the story as to the important information that I got from him.
[27] Gale’s name and address were found in Milteer’s home after Milteer died.
[28] This list was from William Holden’s fine article in the November 1996 issue of The Fourth Decade, “New Evidence Regarding Oswald’s Activities in Clinton, Louisiana”. I often refer to this group as “The National Chronicle crowd.” Most of them have appeared in the paper as either authors or subjects of articles. Other regular authors during the 1960’s were Wesley Swift, Edwin Walker, Gerald Smith, Korean Kilsoo Han of the anti-communist underground and friend of John Lechner, Reverend Oren Potito, James K. Warner, H.S. Riecke leader of a “Minutemen” affiliate called the Paul Revere Associated Yeoman, AKA P.R.A.Y., and editor Hal Hunt.
[29] Goff appeared with John Martino as guest speakers for the kickoff of Robert DePugh’s Patriotic Party on July 4, 1966. DePugh was the founder of the paramilitary Minutemen.
[30] The White Sentinel. December 1963. Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
[31] FBI document, undated.
[32] Interoffice memo from Kay to Sapp dated October 29, 1963. “88” was Somersett.
[33] LA 157-571 cover page. This was also a request by the Secret Service to the FBI to grant permission to interview Gale. This document was acquired by Dr. Jeffrey Caufield FOIA request 906722.
[34] Letter from Chester Warman to Garrison.
[35] FBI files MM 157-896 and MM 157-918
[36] Dennis Lynn Harber had a boat, identified as a “two man sub”, confiscated by the Coast Guard in October 1963. This boat was to be used for anti-Castro operations and was owned by Paulino Sierra.
[37] Tom Dunkin in his June 4, 1967 letter to Richard Billings said “"Harber, who has a Columbia University Master's degree in Education, also had a bit of an educational experience in Colombia, where he was employed as a private tutor for about a year for the family of ex-Presidente Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. Harber also says he has lived at various times for several months duration, in the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Mexico.”
[38] Richard Cotten described Wells as “the pastor of the marvelous church in Anaheim which just happens to be near Knotts Berry Farm…. Reverend Wells’ church is the church where Dr. McIntire and Dr. Hargis and Major Bundy and all of those other fine men speak whenever they are in the area.” Wells formed his own “league” - the Christian Anti-Defamation League. Richard Cotten’s Conservative Viewpoint, February 10, 1966 p. 2.
[39] HSCA 002176, RIF 180-10105-10097.
[40] Dick Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much. (Carroll and Graf Publishers, Inc. 1992) Nagell claimed that he was sent by U.S. intelligence to infiltrate a “domestically formulated” plot to assassinate JFK.
[41] Edward Edell, An American with Guts (Los Angeles: Coleman-Holmquist Press, 1961). This was a biography of Lechner.
[42] Letter from Warman to Garrison, May 10, 1968. This document was obtained from the AARC.
[43] FBI 124-10178-10206, Agency File Number 89-75-907.
[44] HSCA RIF 180-10085-10197. Interview of Howard by Garrison investigator Steve Burton.
[45] Edd Jeffords to James Alcock. July 18, 1968, (AARC).
[46] Klamath Falls Herald and News, May 5, 1968. The article describes Wheat as a “former Klamath County resident wanted for questioning by New Orleans authorities in connection with alleged Kennedy assassination probes, failed to show for a Shasta County, California Superior Court hearing this morning.... Wheat was last seen in Klamath County when he moved from a residence in Poe Valley May 6. The building burned to the ground that night.” Coincidentally, when the FBI questioned Harold Doyle, one of the newly identified “tramps,” he was found in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Crisman became a subject of investigation by Garrison in his probe. Crisman’s name and address appeared in Clay Shaw’s address book. Shaw was tried by Garrison and subsequently found not guilty.
[47] Letter from Orlando, Fla to Garrison. This document was acquired from the AARC.
[48] Beckham interview by Delsa and Buras. HSCA 014888. RIF 180-10121-10016. Dated October 9, 1977.
[49]Memo from Burton to Garrison, May 8, 1968.
[50] HSCA 006058. RIF 180-10085-10191.
[51] HSCA 006058. RIF 180-10085-10194. These are notes from an interview on August 20, 1977 with Loran Hall.
[52] His revelation was in response to a reporter’s question during the question and answer period after Norman’s presentation in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
[53] Hall interview March 12, 1968 interview by Steve Jaffe and summarized in a memo to DA Jim Garrison. http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/H Disk/Hall Loran Eugene/Item 64.pdf
[53b] According to Harry Dean, Hall and Howard were given the medical supplies by Harry from Guy Gabaldon’s supply. Dean is a former Minuteman that was active in Southern California. (Email from Harry Dean August 8, 2001.)
[54] This was Gerry Hemming’s rifle that was hocked by Hemming and taken out of hock by Hall. The check was issued by the American Committee to Free Cuba. The check was supplied by Jose Norman. Norman wanted to go with Hall, Howard and Celio Castro Alba on a raid to Cuba but his speaking schedule precluded him from doing so. The rifle reportedly ended up at at a Dr. Crockett's house in Miami. Crockett was a dentist that would fix anti-Castroites teeth for free. For a complete account of the rifle saga see Hathcock’s interview: HSCA 001041 RIF 180-10086-10375.
[55] Howard Interview by Garrison. HSCA 008269 (pt. 9) RIF 180-10076-10015. This was copied by Anna-Marie Kuhns-Walko at the National Archives, June 1994.
[56] Hall interview by Harold Weisberg. Acquired from the AARC.
[57] Deposition of Gerald Hemming taken 3/21/78 by William Triplett of the HSCA. RIF 180-10086-10250.
[58] Morris is the former Chief Counsel for the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, lawyer for General Edwin Walker, and the force behind Larrie Schmidt’s attempt to take over Young Americans for Freedom and General Edwin Walker’s organization. Morris would later join forces with friends Julien Sourwine and Otto Otepka in an organization called “The National Committee to Restore Internal Security.”
[59] HSCA 014660. RIF 180-10117-10026, p. 97. This was Hall’s HSCA testimony.
[60] This was a disguised attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro. The original plan was sold to the CIA as an extraction of two Russian defectors that had knowledge of missiles in Cuba.
[61] Ibid.
[62] HSCA 8269 (pt. 9) RIF 180-10076-10015.
[63] Brown is the founder of Paladin Press and Soldier of Fortune magazine.
[64] CDL Vice President Bertrand Comparet represented Dr. Stanley Drennan in his efforts to fight Garrison’s extradition efforts. The judge ruled in favor of Drennan.
[65] HSCA 006058 RIF 180-10085-10197
[66] 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. (Courtesy Lisa Pease.)
[67] AWAKE was the Army of White American Kingdom Evangelists. According to FBI 157-282-8, AWAKE was disbanded in early 1964 along with the Christian Knights of the Invisible Empire.
[68] FBI report LA 157-571.
[69] The split seemed to include Gale, Edgar Eugene Bradley, and Dr. Stanley Drennan as one faction and Swift, Butler and Mower as the other. William Turner also noted this in Power on the Right.
[70] Gale claimed that he was the originator of the term Identity. In fact, Rev. John Lovell of Dallas, Texas, another member of the British Israelite Movement, used this term in the February 1957 newsletter of Kingdom Digest. Mary Ferrell, famed JFK assassination researcher, had attended Lovell's church hoping to gather some information.
-
one more thing,
anything on john lennon? i heard that the doorman was a cuban exile (John Geraghty)
John,
I have posted on this subject before so my apologies to forum members who must endure this again.
The doorman of the Dakota Building was a character by the name of Jose Perdomo. He was a Brigade 2506 member and graduated through Fort Benning in 1963. Perdomo went under a few aliases and one of them may have been Sam Jenis who Frank Sturgis was reporting to late in 1959. I have not yet confirmed that.
The story goes that before Lennon was gunned down, Perdomo and Mark Chapman were in deep conversation regarding the JFK assassination.
FWIW.
Perdomo below.
James
Here's some of what Sturgis had to tell the Rockerfeller Commission:
Olsen: What else did you do then after you got back? Did you make contact with any officials of the U.S. Government? Or put it another way, when were you first in contact, after getting back June 20, 1959, when did you first make contact with anybody who you understood to be an official of the U.S. Government?
STURGIS: Sam Jennis.
Olsen: Was Sam Jennis and underground leader in Miami?
STURGIS: Let me say the Sangenes, S-A-N-G-E-N-E-S?
Olsen: Is that all one word, S-A-N-G-E-N-E-S?
STURGIS: Yes sir, one word.
Olsen: It is not two separate words, is it?
STURGIS: No sir. That is the Saneges family, which were Louis Sangenes, and Sergio Saneges, who I have been working closely with in 1957 and 1958. And I made contact with Joaquim Sangenes, code Sam Jennis. I met BARKER, BERNARD L. BARKER, who at that time worked with the CIA, whose boss was EDUARDO. When EDUARDO was relieved of his duty after the Bay of Pigs failure, BARKER'S next Chief of Station was (Deleted).
Olsen: Let's take those one by one. You named several members of the Sangenes family.
STURGIS: Yes, sir.
Olsen: You have given us Louis.
STURGIS: Yes, sir.
Olsen: Sergio and Joaquin?
STURGIS: Yes sir.
Olsen: Now, what were their positions?
STURGIS: CIA.
Olsen: All three of them?
STURGIS: Yes, the CIA, I was led to believe.
Olsen: And were all three of them in Miami?
STURGIS: Yes, sir.
Olsen: And what kind of contact did you have with them? Did they come a recruit you or talk to you?
STURGIS: No sir. You have got to remember that I was in touch with these people from 1957 to 1958.
Olsen: What kind of contact did you have with them in 1957 and 1958?
STURGIS: Working with them in the overthrow of the Batista government.
Olsen: What did you do to work with them in the overthrow of the Batista government?
STURGIS: Smuggled guns, equipment. I was up in the mountains with Fidel, fought in several battles with the rebel forces in the mountains. Again, we brought Clark Wollan into the picture. And so up the line to the embassy.
Olsen: What I am trying to get at here is, did these Sengenes family members have any role in this other than as CIA agents, or were they revolutionaries themselves intent upon overthrowing the Batista government?
STURGIS: Right, sir, yes, sir. Their position at a latter date got to be very important, the fact that they were recruited to be agents for Central Intelligence Agency.
Olsen: When were they recruited to be agents for the CIA?
STURGIS: I would believe the year 1959, if not already 1958, which I am not sure.
Roethe: And what was their position outwardly? They were not card carrying CIA people, I presume, they must have had some position in the Miami community.
STURGIS: Well, these people were top leaders in the revolution. And remember, they did have contact with the past government of Batista, in the government, the top people, and also with the new government to be, which was the 26th of July Fidel Castro outfit. They worked very well into that. You have got to understand their background a little bit. The Sangenes family years back were involved in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain. They were young people at that time. They thought the Communist ideology -- from what I understand from them, they thought that was the thing in those days. So naturally, they broke away from the Communists themselves. And they were very intelligent people. And these are the type of people, with the position that they were in, the intelligence that they have, that the American Government would like to have as agents.
Olsen: But your contact with them in 1957 and 1958 --
STURGIS: Was strictly revolutionary.
Olsen: Was strictly revolutionary?
STURGIS: Yes sir.
Olsen: They were not, as far as you know, at that time, associated with the CIA?
STURGIS: As far as I know.
Olsen: As far as you know?
STURGIS: I did not know if they were or were not.
Olsen: You had no indication, then, that they were?
STURGIS: No indication.
Olsen: So it was not until after you came back from Cuba in 1959 and made contact with them again that you believed that they were agents of the CIA?
STURGIS: Right, yes, sir.
Olsen: What did they say or do at that time to lead you to believe that they were agents of the CIA?
STURGIS: Well, number one, the activity that was going on in the Miami area, not only my activity, (illegible) one in the same position that I had, the comings and goings of people in and out of Cuba. Mrs. Geraldine Shamma, whom I recruited as an agent for the Embassy, was traveling from Havana to Miami. And she had a home on Brickell Avenue, which was a safe house for the CIA. The Cubans who came from Havana would come to the safe house which she maintained herself with her own money, not CIA money, her own money. BERNARD BARKER would call her up, and she would tell him who was there, and he would come over to pick up these Cuban exiles to be sent over to be interrogated or debriefed. This is what BERNARD BARKER would do. And E. HOWARD HUNT, I believe, may have come over there. I don't think he did, but anyway, she met him traveling back and forth from Havana, where she met him, I don't know off hand. You would have to ask her.
STURGIS: I believe Miro Cardona was the President of the Council. Tony Varona. He was the Secretary General of the Council. Well, Manuel Artime, was part of that. He was part of the council. There has been a lot of writing which (illegible) about his position. They call Artime the leader of the invasion brigade. That is not so. Manuel Artime's position was, he was the coordinator between the political group of the Revolutionary Council -- the Revolutionary Council was a political force with the brigade, which was the military force. And because of him being who he was and his contacts, they made him like, I would say, a liaison between both the Brigade and the Revolutionary Council. He was not the leader of the invasion.
Olsen: Who else was at the top of the Revolutionary Council?
STURGIS: San Roman.
Olsen: Is that his last name?
STURGIS: S-A-M R-O-M-A-N.
Olsen: And was he just one of the members of the Revolutionary Council or the leaders?
STURGIS: Yes sir, he was one of the leaders of the Revolutionary Council. And you must remember, the Revolutionary Council was going to be the governing body of a new government in Cuba.
Olsen: Yes, I understand. It is worth at this point naming a few of the other very prominent people who were members of the Revolutionary Council which was going to form the nucleus of the new government if Castro was overthrown?
STURGIS: Let me say this here. There was a lot of dissention that was going on in the Revolutionary Council. There was a power struggle within the Council. You had another member who was outside the Revolutionary Council that they had wanted in. And this is very important. President Kennedy -- I think it was Bobby Kennedy -- either President Kennedy or Bobby Kennedy insisted that this man had to go into this Revolutionary Council. That man did not have an organization in Cuba, this man supposedly had only a nucleus of a handful of revolutionaries -- which caused a big uproar, and changes a lot of things.
Olsen: Who was this that the Kennedys wanted in?
STURGIS: Dr. Manolo Ray, who was considered very much to the left. This created such a turmoil. He was leftist, and his thoughts and thinking were like Fidel Castro's.
Navarro: In Cuba he was a commander for the Castro Army. And he was one of the ministers for the Castro Government.
Olsen: Why did he go to Florida?
STURGIS: Again, Fidel had a power struggle in Cuba where you had the anti-Communists against Fidel himself, and the Fidel Castro government. At that time it was not said that it was a Communist government, but it was a pink type government. You had power struggles within the government. For instance, Commander Camelo Cienfuegos, I believe because of his contact with me, was executed by Fidel Castro. And people like Manolo Ray, who were on the left, were against the Communists.
Olsen: Anyway, you advise us that the insistence of one or both of the Kennedy's created a major uproar in the Revolutionary Council because --
STURGIS: And in the Brigade. Because you must remember, Mr. Olsen, that CIA had direct contact, the political sector of CIA, in which HOWARD HUNT as EDUARDO, was a high ranking political officer with the Revolutionary Council. Then, you had a separate group which was the Brigade. HOWARD HUNT had nothing to do with the Brigade. It was a separate section of the CIA. And then, you had a third separation which was Operation Forty, which was a Top Secret operation. And the head of Operation Forty was Sam Jennis. The second chief --
Olsen: Who headed the Brigade?
STURGIS: The head of the Brigade was Orncido Oliva. He is a colonel in the National Guard.
Olsen: And what was the nature of Operation Forty?
STURGIS: Operation Forty was a CIA Top Secret operation. They were to train, I believe, approximately 200 Cubans who were in the Army. They were officers --
Olsen: That is the American Army?
STURGIS: The American Army, who went and received training in the American Army as officers. Their main job was intelligence. These men were going to be used to infiltrate Cuba to make contact with the underground.
Olsen: Which one of the Sangenes family members headed Operation Forty?
STURGIS: Sam Jennis was the head of the Operation. The second chief of Operation Forty was Felipe Gutierrez.
Olsen: All three of these different operations were essentially being organized by the CIA, weren't they?
STURGIS: Yes sir. If you remember, every one including the President of the U.S. denied that the CIA was behind more funding or training of these people. But they were in fact being what they were supposed to be, U.S. Government operations.
Olsen: It is your testimony, FRANK, that the Revolutionary Council was being financially supported by and organized by the CIA with E. HOWARD HUNT, otherwise know at that time as being EDUARDO, being the chief CIA agent involved in setting up the Revolutionary Council?
STURGIS: Let me correct you a little bit there. He was one of the high political officers of the CIA that was involved in the organization of the Revolutionary Council.
Olsen: And who was it from the CIA who was heading up the training and the organizing and the funding, financing, and what not, of the Brigade?
STURGIS: Well, the funding naturally again was CIA, funding for Operation Forty was CIA. The training for Operation Forty was U.S. Army and CIA. Mr. Frank Bender, which is a code name for Mr. Drecher, is his real name, who was the top CIA official who was in charge of the CIA operation in South Florida for this mess.
Olsen: The whole thing?
STURGIS: Yes.
Olsen: Was Mr. Drecher's real first name FRANK also?
STURGIS: I don't know, sir. He is, I believe, of German extraction, if I am not mistaken. He was a naturalized citizen, he was not born in this country.
Olsen: Do you know whether he is still with the Agency?
STURGIS: I don't know sir.
Olsen: And who was the chief CIA officer having supervisory responsibilities or major responsibility for Operation Forty?
STURGIS: I couldn't go over Sam Jennis myself.
Olsen: But you don't know who it was?
STURGIS: All I knew who was above him was Frank Bender, whom I have never met.
Olsen: Did you meet other people who were, let's say, non-Cubans, who were involved in the planning with respect to the operation that finally ended up with the Bay of Pigs?
STURGIS: Yes, sir.
Olsen: Who else did you meet?
STURGIS: I would have to look through my notes and get you the names.
Olsen: You don't remember any right off hand here now?
STURGIS: Well, there was one man, I can't tell you his name, but he had one arm, and he was a colonel in the French Foreign Legion. He had this home which I had visited several times. I think it was in Coconut Grove. And he was a CIA official. And I believe I do have his name sir, in my notes.
Olsen: Now, what part did you play, FRANK, in this whole operation that led to the Bay of Pigs?
STURGIS: Well, I will have to go back again to Geraldine Shamma at Brickel Avenue. My contact with all the same top military commanders that were in Cuba both in the Army and in the Air Force who were in exile. Geraldine's contact with the head of the underground organization inside of Cuba, with Francisco, whose real name I will give you, but I forget it off hand. Her contact here in Brickel Avenue with BARKER and HUNT. And my association, naturally, with Sam Jennis, who at a later date, when I told him that BARKER wanted me to help him in some of his work, and BARKER, not knowing that I had contact, or was working with Sam Jennis, of course, you have got to understand, a lot of these top people that were in exile who at a later date were involved in the Congo who were friends of mine who were CIA agents. And those were the agents when they came into exile.
I know this is off the track, Mr. Olsen, but it is going to be very important. You have got to understand that you have the same -- not all the Cubans, now, I am talking about -- you have the same nucleus of the Cubans who came over here in the beginning, not every one, but the nucleus of them who were in Cuba with Batista, who were associated with the gambling casinos, the crime syndicate, the American crime syndicate, which in turn controlled the Cuban crime syndicate because all Cubans are not bad, but there was a Cuban crime syndicate. These same people, because of the people they knew with Batista, because of the people that they knew in Cuba, they not only supported Batista, but those same people did support the new Castro government, and got themselves in as a safeguard that if the rebels did succeed, at least they had contact. And they did give money and they did give information and so forth, to these people. And some of them were involved in drugs and crime and what have you.
Olsen: When you say these people, who are the people you are talking about?
STURGIS: I can't put my finger on it, Mr. Olsen. But as we go along -- I am going to jump again -- I have seen this myself, the same people who participated, some of them who participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion, were people who were considered Batistanos, some of them. Now, the Batistanos who supported Batista weren't all bad, but these same people who came over here and were recruited by the CIA, and worked here as agents, and some as double agents. Because of their criminal activities, a lot of information was gotten out of Cuba, because of the contacts.
Olsen: Were any of these people among the leaders of the Cuban Revolutionary Council?
STURGIS: No, I would think they were outside of the Revolutionary Council.
Olsen: Were any of these people among the leaders of the Brigade?
STURGIS: Some were suspected of being double-agents in the Brigade. But then again, you must understand that the Brigade itself, or persons in the Brigade was not a CIA agent, even though the Brigade was recruited from the Cuban colony to fight its soldiers. So that doesn't make them CIA agents, that makes them a force being financed and trained, and their families being paid monies while they were training, and away from home, and fighting, and even while they were in Cuba as prisoners their families were still receiving money from the CIA.
Olsen: Were any of the Batista clan, let's call them, who were among the leaders of Operation Forty?
STURGIS: Yes sir.
Olsen: Who among the leadership of Operation Forty?
STURGIS: Felipe Guiterrez, the second chief of Operation Forty, was a G-2 agent under Batista, a high ranking officer.
Olsen: Was he someone who had close connections with the crime syndicate in Cuba?
STURGIS: I don't know that much about it. But there was a hatred between the second chief of Operation Forty and Sam Jennis, who was the chief of Operation Forty. Each one accused the other, from my information, of being a double agent, while being a CIA agent.
Olsen: Can you name for us a few of the top people who you felt or believed at that time to be persons who had close connections with the Cuban and American underground syndicate -- underworld syndicate?
STURGIS: Senator or ex-Senator Rolando Masferrer. I have something in there that I would like to give you so that you will know his whole background. And then another Senator who at one time was involved in drugs -- I can't think of his name. Masferrer was called El Tigre, the tiger. He was a Senator under Batista, an ex-Communist, and an ex-member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain. He owns a newspaper in Miami called Libertad. And he was very much in touch with the crime syndicate, the American crime syndicate in Havana, plus the Cuban crime syndicate. Anyway, Senator Masferrer, because of his loyalty to General Batista, under the protection and auspices of General Batista, formed army of approximately 2,000 men, a private army, which supposedly was like the muscles of Batista. If Batista wanted to get rid of any of his enemies, Masferrer was there to do the muscle work. He kept the heat off the G-2, which was the Cuban Intelligence Service. I would say many of the ex-Senators that came into exile during Batista's time had contact with the U.S. underworld. This one man, this one Senator, I am trying to remember his name, was involved so much with the U.S. underworld and drugs that the American Government at one time threatened Batista to stop the sale of all legal drugs into Cuba because of this man. And this man today is living in Miami Beach.
Olsen: Is he the Senator whose name you are trying to remember?
STURGIS: Yes. And a very wealthy man.
Navarro: He is the closest friend of President Prio.
STURGIS: Very close to ex-President Carlos Prio.
Olsen: Let's move on from that subject here now to a further exploration of what you did during this period leading up to the Bay of Pigs. Did you operate with the Revolutionary Council?
STURGIS: I had contact with the Revolutionary Council.
Olsen: Did you have contact with Operation Forty.
STURGIS: Yes, sir, I did.
Olsen: And did you have contact with the Brigade?
STURGIS: No sir, not with the Brigade in general. What I did do is, many of the Brigade members -- not many, but some of the Brigade members -- did live at my home. I had a home at Southwest 60th Court.
Olsen: What role did you play in that organization?
STURGIS: Intelligence, training, I did train some of the Brigade members in the Everglades. And I have pictures of the training camp. As a matter of fact, one of the persons I did train is the Vice Mayor of Miami, Manolo Rebozo. I trained many of the intelligence teams for the Brigade.
-
Another point to consider is fund raising and money sources. Anti-Castro operations cost money and these were not rich men. They needed support from the money men. Hall had accompanied Hemming to Dallas, met with some of the people that Hemming was visiting for funds and later, independantly, went back to try and get money from the same sources behind Hemming's back. Obviously, this didn't go over too well with Gerry. Can't say I'd blame him. (David Boylan)
Absolutely right, David.
Speaking of money, Tom Dunkin wrote to Dick Billings that in late October of 1963, Hall and Seymour were on a promise of $30,000 to secure footage inside of Cuba showing Russian missiles. This was supposed to help Barry Goldwater's Presidential campaign of 1964.
Dunkin also said that Hall had weapons and some serious camera equipment including a 16mm Bolex motion picture camera.
James
James,
I believe that this is the camera that Hall got in California the same time he got Hemming's rifle. The check to buy it was supplied by the American Committee to Free Cuba and was signed by Jose Norman.
The weapons were obtained from Clint Wheat and friends. Some made it to Miami and the others were left in the trailor at Lester Logue's brother-in-law's place in Dallas. Speculating here, but I believe the M-1s were left in Dallas to coverted to full auto by John Masen.
Dave
-
Hi Ryan,
You may be right about the Meth distribution as that rings a faint bell.
Yes, Hall definitely comes across as a tad unstable which suggests that he may have figured out that Hemming was possibly behind setting him up.
For those who are interested, this link below is for Hemming's testimony for the HSCA. Just work forward from this page. Some interesting tid bits for sure including his meeting with Bernardo De Torres at Military Intelligence.
http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsc...mming_0001a.htm
James
James,
Another point to consider is fund raising and money sources. Anti-Castro operations cost money and these were not rich men. They needed support from the money men. Hall had accompanied Hemming to Dallas, met with some of the people that Hemming was visiting for funds and later, independantly, went back to try and get money from the same sources behind Hemming's back. Obviously, this didn't go over too well with Gerry. Can't say I'd blame him.
Dave
-
Thanks, David.
Very interesting indeed. There is something fishy about all of this. Not all of it makes a whole lot of sense.
Curious to note that Howard was very keen to make it clear to Garrison that he had nothing to do with the assassination. HSCA testimonies are also curious given that Hall and Howard had theirs released and Seymour's is still sealed. I do have that correct, don't I?
James
Indeed James.
I've never seen anything on how the FBI found the rifle nor how they discovered Payne's fingerprints on the rifle. As far as I know, Seymour's testimony has not been released.
Ron,
I've only seen it spelled Gabaldon. Harry would know for sure.
Dave
-
What brought up the info. on Dave Robbins, do you know his location,or other info. on him. (Harry Dean)
Harry,
Robbins name came up in a conversation I was having with these Cuban guys here. It was regarding Robbins' relationship to Loran Hall and some discussions these guys had (and others) regarding assassinating JFK. One of these Cubans believes Hall knows what went down in Dallas and should be interviewed. I believe Hall and his son are doing some serious prison time in Kansas for drug related crimes (please someone correct me if I'm mistaken here).
Recalling the story of Hall getting Hemming's rifle (Johnson) out of hock and supposedly being in Dallas, and Hemming's attempts to implicate Hall, sounds like both men were a bit worried about what the other knew and went on the attack.
Anyway, I don't know where Robbins is or if he is still alive but he sure would be an interesting character to track down.
I asked about Seymour as the suggestion was made that originally he may have been a dangle for the ONI. Hemming claimed much later that he was reporting to them. FWIW.
James
James,
The 30.06 supposedly ended up at a Dr. Crockett's house in Miami. Crockett was a dentist that performed dental work for free for members of the anti-Castro movement. Here's the Payne and Hathcock affadavits:
AFFIDAVIT OF RICHARD HATHCOCK
My name is Richard Hathcock. I once owned and operated Allied International Detective Agency. At the time that we're interest in, my offices were at 6715 Hollywood Boulevard in the Outpost Building. About two months before the John Kennedy assassination in Dallas, two men came to see me in my office. One was Jerry Patrick Hemming, who was using the name of Jerry Patrick. The other man was Lorenzo Hall, who like to called Skip Hall, whose real name was Pacillio, which I understand is a Cuban name. These men came to see me one afternoon, stating that they had heard of me because of my many years of undercover investigation of communism on the state college campuses here when I worked for the Hearst chain, and some other activities, anti-communist activities that I had been involved in. They were here, they told me, to raise money with which to buy medicines and equipment, military hardware for a planned invasion of Cuba. That they were going to train troops in Guatemala, which they actually did later. They told me that they were dead broke, and that they were going to be here for two or three weeks, they had some other contacts that they wanted to see, raise money, but meantime they needed a hundred dollars. They wanted to borrow the hundred dollars, and what they had for security was a set of golf clubs and a rifle which was a 30 caliber Johnson, modified to sem-automatic operation, which I believe held nine rounds, and also was equipped with a 30 power Bushnell variable scope. I gave them the hundred dollars, they left the golf clubs and the rifle. For several weeks after that, I saw both men frequently, then my understanding was that Jerry Patrick returned to Miami to set things in operation down there for the planned invasion of Cuba. What they had planned essentially was to blow up some oil storage tanks on the west coast. Lorenzo Hall stayed here, and was in the private eye office very often, almost every day. He told me that both he and Patrick had originally been in Castro's army when they believed that he was really trying to free Cuba from Batista, that they had fought, fought hard, helped to put Castro in power, found out that he was a communist, had no interest in the poeple, and they turned on Castro with the result that both were imprisoned, and sentenced to be shot. Both, through manipulations and through friends managed to escape and get to this country. They showed me lots of photos, gave me documents, and I do believe what they told me about those things. Eventually, as I say, Patrick went back to Miami, and I did not see him after that. Shortly before the assa ssination, if memory serves me correctly, it was no more that ten days before the assassination, Skip Hall and a big, fat Mexican whom I'd never seen before, and whose name I don't recall at this time, but I'm sure the FBI has it, came to see me, told me that they were going to Dallas to pick up some medicines and some other material, they wanted to redeem the rifle. They gave me $50, told me to keep the golf clubs, I got a note signed by Skip Hall that he had picked up the rifle, which I later gave to Jerry Crow, of the FBI. What happened to that rifle, I don't know. Jim Garrison showed me a photo at one time, an 8X10 enlargement, which he said was made by a Dallas Morning News photographer seconds after the killing in Dallas. The photo showed a Dallas detective holding the rifle which was picked up on Dealey Plaza. The rifle looked to me exactly like the one I'd had in my office. I have combed the Warren report stem to stern. I find no mention of that rifle which was picked up on Dealey Plaza. I also found no mention of antoerh rifle found on the second floor of the book depository building. Skip Hall later told me that he had turned that rifle over a doctor friend of his in Miami, Florida. Jerry Patrick told me later that that was a damn lie, that he talked to Hall, and as far as he could find out that was a lie about where the rifle was. But he told me that he had never recovered the rifle. The rifle was in my office all those weeks, and one of the gentlemen who worked with me in the detective business, Roy Payne, who is a gun expert and a gun nut, assembeled and disassembled and reassembled that rifle on numerous occasions. And I'm sure that Mr Payne can tell you a great deal more about the rifle than I can.. The day after John Kennedy was killed in Dallas, I received a phone call from Jerry Crow, an FBI agent here in Los Angeles, who asked if I had an agent working for me who was named Pay Payne, and I said yes. Jerry wanted to know if he could come by the office and see me and Mr Payne, and we arranged for that meeting. It's my opinion that the reason he wanted to see Mr Payne was because Payne's fingerprints undoubtly were all over that rifle from his having handled it many times. It's also my opinion that, unless that particular rifle had been found or in some way involved in this whole thing, that the FBI would have no interest init. And I think that we'd better let Mr Payne pick it up from here.
Declare under penalty of perjury that the above three-page affidavit true and correct to the best of my belief and knowledge.
Signed - Richard Hathcock
State of California
County of Los Angeles
DOC # 003264
AFFIDAVIT OF LEROY BARTON PAYNE
My name is Leroy Barton Payne. I was a co-partner, an agent for Allied International Detectives with Dick Hathcock. Our offices at the time of this occurrence were at 6715 Hollywood Boulevard in the outpost building. I have heard and have listened to Mr Hathcock make his statement and I agree with him in every aspect of his statement, and I will, to the best of my recollection, account my experiences with Jerry Patrick and Lorenzo Pacillio, alias Skip Hall or Lorenzo Hall. I first met them when they came into the office on, in the outpost building, and in the description of these two gentlemen, Jerry Patrick was tall, blond, wearing jump boots and the trousers tucked into the top, very much a Joe Palooka type. Skip Hall professed to be an ex-Marine, I believe officer, I'm not sure, at least this is what he told us, small, wiry, dark hair, olive complexion he at one time introduced us to his wife. I do not recall what her name was. They lived in an apartment in, I believe, in Monterey Park, somewhere near the state college campus. They were out here on a speaking and fund raising campaign for going back to Cuba, and as I remember, they were out gathering various types of military accouterments, weapons, medicines, so on and so forth. How they obtained these weapons was not part of any information that was given to either Mr Hathcock or myself. Though they did tell me, or rather Lorenzo Hall did tell me that he had his closet in his apartment full of weapons, and that he was afraid that the FBI was going to come in there and raid the place and take him along, and they were going to have to smuggle them out. And they were getting ready to go to, to go back to Cuba. He drew us a map on an inlet on the shore of south of Havana or near Havana that was the oil storage reservoir and tank farm. It showed on this map the tank farm and several storage docks, and what they had planned on doing was taking a boat to Kingston, Jamaica, refueling, and then going in as frogmen to take satchel charges of plastic explosives and set them on the storage tank farm and the dock area and destroy this to cripple Cuba by getting rid of all of the fuel, oil, gasoline, etc., that was presently sotred for Castro. About I would say, ten days, fifteen days, maybe a month, somewhere along in there, prior to President Kennedy's assassination, here I am fuzzy on the exact period. But Lorenzo Hall and a fat, Mexican fellow came in and redeemed the rifle. Now this rifle I had been told that it would, that it had gone on several Cuban raids in the past, and knowing that it is very easy to modify a weapon such as this to make it full automatic, and that it did have nine rounds in the chamber, nine rounds in the weapon and one in the chamber, making it ten rounds that could be fired automactically, I took the weapon and test fired it, and then pulled it apart to make sure that it had not been tampered with. It had not and was a straight semi-automatic weapon. It was a Johnson semi-automatic 30.06, it had a 30 power variable Bushnell scope, very much like a telephone lens, on a camrea. I would say that this weapon properly sighted in would put a hole in a dime at 500 yards. The bullets would be fired as fast as one could pull the trigger. Ten seconds, ten rounds, or les. They picked this weapon up and signed a note that they had picked it up as I was present in the office when these two gentlemen were there to pick the weapon up. Approximately the next day or two, they left for Miami, and I made the statement to this Lorenzo Hall that, well, we'll be reading about you in the paper. Well, Dick and I went about our business as normal as far as the agency was concerned and didn't really think about them except to say, well, we hadn't heard anything. Five days prior to the assassination of President Kennedy, on a Monday, Mr Patrick, excuse me, Mr Hall, was in Hollywood, California, in front of out building, talking with Mr Hathcock, and I stopped and talked to them, and of course I said, well, why don't you come over and let's go get a cup of coffee, and tell us what happened, and he said, well, no he I've got to make the plane for Dallas. The situation with Mr Pacillio or Mr Hall is that he stated to me when I asked him, well, you know, what happened during the situation we didn't hear anything. He said that the CIA confiscated and arrested everybody at the boat in Miami, and I asked him at the time why didn't he get himself arrested also, and he said, well, he was on the dock and could not, be connected with tthe situation. They didn't have any evidence against him. I'm going to make an assumption now, or a realtively educated assumption. The CIA is not an arrestive body, nor are they an internal United States intelligence agency functional agency. This I did not recall, it just didn't make any sense to me until later. Of course Friday, I believe, November 22, was the assassination that Friday was the assassination at noon in Los Angeles, out time, and the next day I received a telephone call from my business partner Dick Hathcock, telling me that there was a gentleman coming into the office that wanted to talke to us, that gentleman was a special agent of the FBI, a Jerry Crow, who is stall presently with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and at the Los Angeles field Office. Mr Crow came in and I opened the door for him and he showed me his identificaiton, he had a big bundle of papers with him and a large, in a large manilla envelope, and he introduced himself, and I said, "Hi, my name is Roy Payne, come in." I introduced him to Mr Hathcock, my partner, and Mrs Hathcock was there also, and he put his bundle down on the chair in front of the desk and took some papers out and said, "I would like to ask some questions about Skip Hall and Roy Payne," and I said, well, "I'm Roy Payne, why don't you ask me whatever you want to ask." He seeemed rather surprised that I was there. At least that was the impression that I got. We discussed the situation about what had occurred and what has gone on with Jerry Patrick Hemming and SKip Hall, Lorenzo Pacillio, and so on, then I did not see him
for quite some time after that. I did, however, find that the FBI, or
someone, was, I can only make assumption, was following me and did tail me for some months after that. I had an ex-brother-in-law who was, and I am not correct with this, he is deceased now, and his was Harvey Berkey, who was the assistant agent in charge of the local field office for the FBI here. In asking or making an attempt to ask Harvey what the heck was going on, Harvey refused to talk to me, and I could not gain entrance to his house, he would not answer the door, nor would his wife nor his children. There was on one occasion, I did run into Harvey Berkey outside of my office with Mr Hathcock, and he did not want to talk to me at all and excused himself and said he had to go. I did, within the week after the assassination of the President, have occasion to go to Palm Springs, I believe it was on a Thursday, and I stayed at a small motel upon entering the town, and about three o'clock in the morning had occasion to see two gentlemen go through my vehicle pretty thoroughly, and they had keys to enter and to go through my car, they went through the glove compartment, I had had evidence prior to that that my vehicle had been entered and searched as well as out offices, which then had been moved to, Allied Detectives moved to 6605 Hollywood Boulevard, on the third floor. We had Suite 310, which covered several rooms, adn we did have a system to show whether our offices had been entered and the file had been searched several times. We feel, or felt that out telephone, both at home, the answering service for the office, and both our
homes had been tapped. This went on for several months. The next night,
Saturday, after the assassination, I had to drive to Santa Maria and was there overnight. There were three vehicles that followed my car up Pacific Coast Highway all the way up to Santa Maria and then again picked me up the next day when I went through several of the small towns in the rural area and up to Highway 99, which is now I-5, and then comeing back the Ridge Route. The same subject vehicles that followed me the next day after the assassination were the same vehicles that I saw in Palm Springs for the a week later, along with the same gentlemen, that were in them. Like I say, this went on for quite some time, two to three months after the assassination. One afternoon, about ten days or two weeks after the assassination, about 4:30 in the afternoon, I received a telephone call at the office from Lorenzo Hall, or Lorenzo Pacillio. I said, "Hey buddy, you better have a lot of witnesses because you were in Dallas at the time of the
assassination,: and he said, "I've got witnesses to prove that I was right in the middle of the lobby of the Hilton Hotel, and a hundred people know I was there, and I was nowhere near where Kennedy was assassinated." When the District Attorney of New Orleans, Jim Garrison, came to California with an order or request for extradition of two gentlemen, one gentleman was from Burbank, the other gentleman was Skip Hall, or Lorenzo Pacillio, the same man, in a newspaper statement that Mr Hall or Mr Pacillo had made, he stated that he had never been in the state of Texas, yet he had told me that he had gone to Texas, that he was leaving that Monday prior to the assassination to go to Dallas, and that he has a hundred witnesses in a hotel to show that he had been in Dallas, Texas, but was nowhere near the assassination site. Let's see here. I have never heard from again this Lorenzo Pacillio, or Lorenzo Hall, he had never made any attempt to contact me or call me, he did tell me at the time of this one phone call, that several attempts had been made on his life, that his car had been boobed once or twice, and it had been blown up. He said someone else who had started the vehicle had been blown up with it. I have no direct knowledge that there was an automobile bombing. I have never pursued the situation. I did on one occasion go and drive out to visit with Jerry Patrick Hemming, who was living somewhere off the San Berardino Freeway, Monterey Park, Montebello, in that specfic area. He discussed with me at the time about turning over the rifle to them and he didn't like the idea that the rifle went down there, since he felt it was his rifle and the golf clubs that were also hocked at that time the original meeting were Lorenzo Pacillio;s, and that the rifle was his, and other than that particular conversation, I have never had any further contact Jerry Patrick, or as I say, no further contact at all with Lorenzo Hall. I understood that he had been living in central California for some period of time, and in a compuound type of area, and operated a bar or a cocktail lounge or a beer bar or tavern in the downtown area. Then I understood later from Dick Hathcock that he is now back down here in Southern California and is living somewhere out in the Monterey Park Montebello area and has been in and out of the hospital once or twice, but other that that I have no direct knowledge to bring situations up to date.
I declare under penalty of perjury that the above eight-page affidavit is true and correct to the best of my belief and knowledge.
signed LEROY BARTON PAYNE
-
Excellant Antti, right to the point - and of course one the FBI dodged totally and the WC let them get away with.
After all, this is only one of three photos supposeldy in Oswald's possession so
its not like it removes any evidence for Oswald at least doing photo surveillance on Walker. And it seems that if the car meant something in particular to Oswald he could just destroyed that picture totally if not all of them.
So, either the car tag did mean something to Oswald...suggesting something much more complex about the Walker thing than anybody wanted to investigate.
Or the car tag meant something to the officers involved and they scratched it off and were willing to comment perjury - something that sounds pretty stupid at this distance. Or just maybe he showed the photos to somebody else who told him in no uncertain terms to get the tag off there.
I wish I could come up with something that makes sense but unless multiple DPD officers lied about it, then to me it suggests that whatever Oswald was up to in regard to Walker, there is more going on with it than just Oswald by himself and that it may well have been a different 57 Chevy than the one owned by Walker's associate. The one thing we lack in the FBI report is a quote from the DPD that they verified with the supposed Chevy owner that it was his car on the date in question - and we know the FBI did not attempt to confirm that, or if they did there is no sign of it in their report.
-- Larry
A NARA search shows only 2 documents on Charles Klihr.
RECORD NUMBER : 124-10092-10206
RECORD NUMBER : 124-10106-10275
You'd think there would be more.
-
Hey Harry,
What can you tell us about Guy Gabaldon? What little I know:
1. friend of Loran Hall.
2. Had an appartment in Mexico City
3. Hall was his campaign manager in 1964
4. Had a movie made based on him - From Here to Eternity
Dave
Hi,David
Guy 'Gabby' Gabaldon, Mexican American,Los Angeles,California.
Late 1950s/early 1960s Movie Hell To Eternity, starring actor
Jeffrey Hunter. Next during news interveiw called for a force of
armed Veteran Marines/Military to organize to invade Cuba. This
effort was broken-up by L.A. FBI agents, all took their arms and
dispursed on friendly terms. Others clung to Gabaldon and his
ideal, one was Larry Howard,soon came Lorenzo Hall then several
others drifted in from the San Gabriel Valley L.A. county towns
and cities. It should be noticed that of those mentioned in
the ant-Castro/anti Kennedy activities most including Hemming
where from this area. I soon on became involved with the Gabaldon
group, with Howard, Hall and some of the others, while keeping the
the L.A. bureau advised. I did not know Hemming personally, but
Hall and Howard travel'd cross country with him,all returning here
often to raise funds for No-Name Key anti-Castro actions. Howard
and I were on friendly terms, Hall was not so with most of us.
There is to much to relate here re; other, later higher-up connections,
and Gabaldon's Mexico City area operations and schemes that included
them. So on to your questions.
Gabaldon ask me to become his campaign manager, I declined, telling him
he should recruit Hall, as he spoke Spanish well. He did so, later bitterly
blaming Hall for his loss. In that race Gabaldon was facing another, but well
intrenched Republican, he could not have won.
Gabaldon used/screened his movie as a recruiting tool around the country
it was the case in Phoenix,Az where Billy Seymour came into the picture.
Sorry, David I must beg-off further for now.
Hope this answered some of your questions.
H. Dean
Thanks Harry. Good info. Interesting that it was Gabaldon that got Seymour interested.
Dave
-
Hey Harry,
What can you tell us about Guy Gabaldon? What little I know:
1. friend of Loran Hall.
2. Had an appartment in Mexico City
3. Hall was his campaign manager in 1964
4. Had a movie made based on him - From Here to Eternity
Dave
-
I guess this can be filed under useless information but one of the soldiers under Walker in Little Rock was Dan Burros. In that strange world of Lee Harvey Oswald's address book, there was a listing for Dan Burros. I haven't looked at it years, but I believe the address was American National Party, New York.
Burros was a right wing gadfly. He at one time was a member of the National States Right Party, American Nazi Party, KKK, and Minutemen. In 1962, he and John Patler (who later assassinated Rockwell) split with Rockwell's American Nazi Party to form their own 2 man org called the American National Party.
I'm perplexed on how Oswald even knew about these guys.
Dave
-
Thanks guys. I'll just chalk it up to one of those coincidences. Kind of like Earl Ruby calling Thomas Hill in Belmont, MA. HL Hunt's nefew.
Dave
-
I've never seen an indentification of Sylvia Odio's "friend" Johnny Martin aka Juan Martin. Supposedly a gun dealer rom Venezula. Was this John Martino by any chance?
Document # 180-10108-10350 Is another memorandum of an interview by Burt Griffen. This is with Mrs. Connell. It is also dated 4/16/64.
Interview with Mrs. C. L. Connell, Dallas, Texas.
…Mrs. Connell described John Martin aka Juan Martin as sharing Miss Odio's anti-Kennedy feelings. Mrs.Connell stated she met Martin twice at Miss Odio's apartment. She described Martin as being about 5ft. 7 in. tall weighing 130 lbs. and as being a close friend of Miss Odio. She stated that sometime in 1963 Martin drove to Florida where he picked up a car belonging to Sylvia Odio's brother and drove it back to Dallas.
I questioned Mrs. Connell about Col. Castorr. She said that Col. Castorr's wife is connected with H. L. Hunt. H. L. Hunt is the father of Lamar Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City football team. The daughter of H. L. Hunt is a Mrs. Hill who is active in right-wing political activities. Mrs. Connell described Mrs. Hill as being in her late 40's or early 50's. (It is entirely possible that Mrs. Hill is the mother of Thomas Hill, a former Dallas man in his mid-20's who now lives in Belmont, Massachusetts, and works as an organizer there for the John Birch Society. Thomas Hill was a leader in the John Birch Society in Dallas before he went to Belmont. Thomas Hill's name appeared in Jack Ruby's notebook and may have been taken down when Ruby photographed the "Impeach Earl Warren" sign.)
-
I think I posted something like this before:
CITIZENS COMMITTEE FOR A FREE CUBA
617 Albee Building, 1426 “G” Street NW, Washington 5, D.C.
Tel. 783-7507
DECLARATION OF PURPOSE
The Citizens Committee for a Free Cuba has been formed in response to a statement issued by the Freedom House, on March 25, 1963 calling upon Americans to unite in a movement for a free Cuba.
The Committee is nonpartisan. It believes that Cuba is an issue that transcends party differences, and that its solution requires the kind of national unity we have always manifested at moments of great crisis. This belief is reflected in the broad and representative membership of the Committee.
The Committee holds, with Freedom House, that a “Communist Cuba is intolerable,” not only for reasons which bear upon our security but also because “it has betrayed six million people who won their freedom from the Batista Dictatorship.”
[stuff deleted]
The first Executive Secretary was Daniel James. He was also the editor or their newsletter called “Free Cuba News”. Paul Bethel took over during the fall of ’63.
-
Harry,
Did you happen to know Burt Mold? And was he a possible mob associate? Peter Dale Scott has him working in a Vegas casino during the late 1970's.
And one more: did you ever meet Col William Gale?
Dave
-
Butler was on the CIA payroll, just like John Carl Day.
Wim
Wim,
How do you know this?
Dave
-
Ok, I found this doc on Butler, Morris and Lowery.
To: W.C. Sullivan Date 1/20/64
From W. A. Branigan
Subject: Lee Harvey Oswald, IS –R-CUBA
By airtel 1-13-64, Dallas Office reported that on 1-4-64 William James Lowery, Jr. a former security informant of the Dallas Office, reported that he had been contacted by Earl Lively, Jr., of Dallas, Texas. Lowery stated Lively is reported writing an anticommunist book which will stress the Fair Play for Cuba Committee connections of Lee Harvey Oswald. Lively showed Lowery a letter from Herbert Philbrick, former Communist Party member who has testified on behalf of the Government concerning communist activities. According to Lively, Philbrick plans to be in Dallas soon and desires to meet Lowery.
Lively further informed Lowery that he desired Lowery’s assistance in writing his book. He stated that Dr. Robert Morris, former counsel to the Senate Internal Security Committee under Senator McCarthy, was assisting him and Lt. George Butler of the Dallas Police Department was also assisting him. Lively added that Lt. George Butler of the Dallas PD was going to try to get any information he could that the FBI turned over to the Dallas Police Department in connection with the Lee Harvey Oswald case.
In connection with Lowery mentioned above, ha was a member of and active in the Communist Party on a local and state basis from September 23, 1945 to September 23, 1963. He has also testified for the Government before the Subversive Activities Control Board.
Our indices indicate Earl Lively, Jr., probably is identical to Earl William Lively, Jr. In 1962, Office of Special Investigations, Air Force (OSI), furnished us information that Lively was a member of the Air National Guard and at that time was a student of the Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. He was investigated by OSI since a national agency check revealed he was a subscriber to “The Worker” and the “Midweek Worker,” both communist publications. Individuals interviewed by OSI reported Lively was extremely anticommunist and as being extremely rightist in his political views. They reported in their opinion Lively subscribed to communist publications only to obtain background information on the Communist Party line. They also reported Lively extremely anti-Fidel Castro.
OBSERVATIONS:
In view of the serious allegation that Lt. Butler of the Dallas Police Department is involved in scheme to furnish FBI data to Earl Lively, Jr., desirable we have SAC, Dallas personally discuss this allegation with the head of the Dallas Police Department and impress upon him the undesirability of Lt. Butler being involved with such a scheme as alleged by our source. Inasmuch as Lowery has testified for the Government before the Subversive Activities Control Board, and is no longer a security informant, we will not jeopardize an important informant situation by discussing his allegation with the head of the Dallas Police Department.
ACTION:
Attached is a teletype to SAC, Dallas, instructing the SAC, Dallas, to personally contact the head of Dallas Police Department and alert him to the information furnished by Lowery and impress upon him the undesirability of individuals in his department divulging to unauthorized individuals data furnished the Dallas Police Department by the FBI. We are also instructing SAC, Dallas, to request the that the head of the Dallas Police Department determine whether Lt. George Butler of the Dallas Police Department is involved in a scheme to furnish FBI data to Lively as alleged by Lowery.
-
As much as I dislike far-right groups like the John Birch Society, I find it difficult to believe they were involved in the assassination of JFK.
What is clear is that their was an attempt to implicate several groups, both left and right, in the assassination of JFK. I suspect that the real plotters were doing this in order to spread confusion and cause problems for those investigating the crime. People like Bernard Weissman and Vaughn Marlowe were being created as possible “patsys”. As it happens, Lee Harvey Oswald, ended up taking the rap. If it had not been him, it would have been someone else.
If it was the John Birch Society, what was their motive? I assume they hated JFK because of his civil rights policies. However, they must have known that in November, 1963, there was very little chance of him getting this legislation through Congress. Nor was JFK trying too hard. He had to get the support of people like James Eastland, John Stennis, Richard Russell and Herman Talmadge in order to win the 1960 election (see Robert Kennedy’s private interview with Anthony Lewis in 1964 on this). RFK points out that their help was vital in the election win. It was also going to be vital in 1964. JFK was fully aware that he could not afford to upset the far right in the Deep South. Its leaders knew this business about Civil Rights was just PR.
This far-right theory also has another deep flaw. They did not on the surface appear to get what they wanted. LBJ becomes president and he uses his considerable power to force through Civil Rights legislation. This is legislation that he had spent his political life blocking. He even campaigned against attempts by Congress to introduce anti-lynching legislation. His financial backers were extreme racists.
When LBJ signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act he made a prophecy that he was “signing away the south for 50 years”. This proved accurate. In fact, the Democrats have never recovered the vote of the white racists in the Deep South. This is the electorate that now gives its support to the Republican Party.
LBJ is one of the shrewdest politicians of the modern era. Why would he do this? I think it is one of the great mysteries of modern history. I have tried to explain why he acted in this way here:
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1909
Of course, a very small group did know that JFK had developed more liberal opinions during 1963. This has to remain a secret because he knew he would never win the 1964 election if the American public knew he was no longer a Cold War warrior. In fact, this image of the tough guy willing to stand up to communism, was vitally important if he was going to win in 1964.
It is like George Bush being secretly converted to the idea that he needed to withdraw his troops from the Middle East and to put high taxes on fuel in order to stop global warming. However, he decided to keep this quiet until after the 2004 election. How would the leading Neo Cons react if they discovered this? I suspect the same way that right-wing members of the CIA acted when they realised what JFK was up to in the summer of 1963. The only way he could be stopped was by having him assassinated.
John,
There were members of the JBS that did mention killing JFK. This talk was not uncommon. Here's a specific instance with some additional detail:
HSCA Testimony of Loran Hall. Pg. 60
Mr. Triplett. Just give us a very brief description of the purpose of the meeting and those people there.
Hr. Hall. We were wasting our time with the hit and run raids in Cuba. It was a waste of effort. We were losing too much equipment, too many boats to the Coast Guard, CIA, FBI, the whole stick. Not only did we have to worry about fighting the Cubans but we had to fight the American Government also. So rather than go through all that Logue and myself decided what we would try to do was form a government-in-exile, Cuban government-in-exile, try to get all the groups to come together under one group. In order to do that we had to have someone, some Cuban who would be accepted by all of the groups. That was my job in Dallas, I mean Miami. We tried to do that. We couldn’t get that accomplished. The groups wouldn’t agree to one president. So we decided what we would try to do was get $50,000 between Logue and his group, get enough equipment and enough boats so we could make our raid into Cuba, get boats from Cuba so we could have a line of logistics between the United States and Cuba, and in that way possibly we could have ---at a later date get someone who would be accepted by all the different groups, and if we could have gotten enough equipment and enough people involved was [sic] and could have formed a government-in-exile.
Mr. Triplett. So essentially are you saying this meeting was for the purpose of raising money to accomplish this task?
Mr. Hall. Yes.
Mr. Triplett. And your role in the meeting, you, Loran Hall, were there sort of as a promoter or the person to explain it. Is this what your purpose was for being there?
Mr. Hall. I think it was. I was there mostly because I was you might say the military part of the operation.
Mr. Triplett. At that meeting was a comment made regarding the killing of President Kennedy?
Mr. Hall. Yes, there was.
Mr. Triplett. Which one of these persons that you have described made the comment?
Mr. Hall. The man by the name of Jack that owned the trucking company.
Mr. Triplett. What exactly did Jack say and do?
Mr. Hall. What we were saying, was between the five of them, they could come up with $10,000 apiece, come up with $50,000, that would be enough money to get us started. And Jack jumped up, or whatever his name was, jumped up and threw either his billfold or checkbook or something on the table and said, xxxx, I will put $50,000 in right now if the rest of you will match it, and we will have Kennedy’s head blowed off because with Johnson in as President, he is a Texan and Texans take care of Texans.
[…..]
pg 83.
Mr. Triplett. What was your purpose for being in Dallas at that time? [March, 1963]
Mr. Hall. That is when I went to, I think that was the time that I went to Dallas, Texas to see Lester Logue concerning forming a government-in-exile, a Cuban government-in-exile, at which time he agreed that it would be a avenue that would be worth looking into, at which time he got me a ticket and I flew back to Miami and I started pursuing that avenue.
[…]
Mr. Triplett. What were you doing during the daytime?
Mr. Hall. Contacting various people, trying to make contact for equipment. Lester Logue, I went and seen Niko [Crespi] several times and I think on one occasion Dan Smoot, and I seen Robert Morris, and I went to the newspaper place and talked to “Poor Richard” or whatever his pen name was.
-----------------
Weisberg interview of Hall Feb 1968.
Hall. [describing his two Cuban friends in Dallas. ] I remember one of them was kind of stout, real stout built and about, oh, I would say he was about 5’10” or 5’11”. – and the other one was short, he was probably 5’6”, small in stature and I know his dad owned a
Sugar plantation in Mexicalli.
[…]
Weisberg. Yeah.
Hall. And I went to see Keating [senator Keating], because I had sent Keating, that never did show – never came through because he never said a word about it.
Weisberg. Incidentally, and you may not want to talk about this it’s just curiosity, nothing directly to do with this- do you have any idea who was feeding Keating the stuff on the Cuban missile crisis?
Hall. Oh I have , I have a good idea who it was, I ah, I ah, don’t know for sure but I have a good idea – it was the CIA.
Pg 46.
Hall. Well, wait just a minute, it does in a way because we had talked, to uh, Duncan [Tom Duncan] and some of the other guys about going in and pulling a raid in Georgia out at Fort Benning where they carry all the , uh…
Weisberg. You mean to get some equipment.
Hall. Yeah, you know, you know, this is standard procedure, steal Army equipment. Hell, they’ve got it and we want it.
Weisberg. Well, there is reason to believe that it happened down in Texas.
Hall. Oh, we know it did.
Weisberg. Really?
Hall. Oh –haha.
Weisberg. Really know it happened, or is all you have is rumor.
Hall. We know..(laughter)
Weisberg. Care to tell me about it?
Hall. No, I don’t want to..
Weisberg. You know there were people involved…
Hall. I know quite a few people involved.
Weisberg. Did that stuff really get out?
Hall. Damn right it did.
Weisberg. Didn’t have anything to do with getting your boats in Dallas did it?
Hall. I’m not saying a word. (laughter) No, I can tell you that there was 250 VARS [sic] that got out.
[…]
Hall. They went to Majaris, from Majaris right, right into Cuba and they went to Oriente.
[…]
Hall. Yeah, do you know where Majaris Island is at?…Well it’s off Yucatan…there is an island called Majaris.
[..] pg 73
Hall. …We had a hell of a deal set up – we were going to take all the, uh, we were going to take Prio Socarres to Guatemala and we were going to invade Cuba from Guatemala into Oriente, set up a 24 hour holding period and ask the United Nations to come in and help us and we were going to do this and Prio Soccares got…Yeah, and do you know what. The dirty lousy son of a bitch wouldn’t do it. Prio Soccares flat turned me down and I had the money, I had the ground and I had everything set up.
Weisberg. Did you have an army?
Hall. You bet.
Dave
-
I do not know of Lechner being involved with organized crime. One must
recall those times and seasons, that made strange bedfellows, out of necessity
as the true saying goes.
One of the four at that meeting let drop some info. to a confederate with a
loose tongue. As an example, Any Cubans I knew, when elated always blabbed
even deep secrets.
H.Dean
Harry,
Did you know Burt Mold? If so, what can you tell us about him?
Dave
-
Christian Defense League
Dave
-
Hi,again David
I have not missed any of your posts.
In answer to most of your questions I will say the following;
I knew Dr. Lechner in passing, he was known and admired
by all in radical conservative circles. I did not know of his
Chicago connection{s}.
I knew Walter Knott very well,and of his efforts in the movement.
I knew Herb Phibrick casually,and exchanged Christmas card yearly.
ACFC,American Committee To Free Cuba,was an invention of The
John Birch Society.
I Knew Gen. Walker well.
I knew John Rousselot well.
I knew Steve Foot casually.
I knew Jose Norman well.
I knew Loran Hall,activities,speaches et al. well.
There are others in the ultra conservative 'combination'/movement
known by me also.
Harry
Thanks Harry,
When Mold and Lechner visited Cesar Blanco and Paulino Sierra in Chicago to enlist their help, they allegedly claimed that their backers were "gamblers from the West." And they supposedly named Jake Lansky. Now, have you ever known Lechner to be involved with organized crime?
If there were just the 4 of them at this meeting, how did the FBI know about this?
Dave
-
Hey Harry,
What can you tell us about Dr. John Lechner? I've included some old notes I have.
Burt Mold and John Lechner go to Chicago from LA to visit Paulino Sierra end of February. Mold and Lechner were members of various conservative organizations based in California – Americanism Educational League, board member of the American Committee to Free Cuba, California American Legion and the Americans for Cuban Freedom that Mold and Lechner co-founded in 1961. Richard Nagel had an entry in his notebook “Dr. John Lechner Americanism Educational League.” Members of note of the AEL: Hon. Robert Morris, Vice Admiral TD Ruddock, Rear Adm Julian Wheeler, Brig Gen Walter Shoaff, Adm Chester Ward, Spruille Braden, Walter Knott, Herbert Philbrick, and Harry von Zell.
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 Burt 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.
Dave
-
From the Human Right Violations - Cubans Assassinated
by Fidel Castro web site: Mayo 28, 1964 en la Cabaña Felipe Vidal Santiago
Dave
-
Hey Harry,
Long time! Welcome aboard.
Dave
-
Tosh,
First of all, thanks for being here. There is so much history that is still unknown from the early '60s.
One of the things that I am interested in is the "Bayo-Pawley" raid aka Operation Tilt. From what little I know, this was an assassination attempt against Castro that was disguised as a retrieval of Russian Colonel(s) that had knowledge of missiles that were still in Cuba.
You mentioned that you were going to exfiltrate Eddie Perez. My question: was anyone succesful in getting him out of Cuba?
As of Sept 1963, Luis Angel Castillo (Pezez's brother or son-in-law) was still attempting to bring him out.
Dave
Dave I'll get back to you on a few details about the Bayo/Pawley-Pezez as well as Jose Perez and the Russian missile techs removed from Cuba and what happened to them. You might want to get a copy of Deadly Secrets by Warren Hinckle and Bill Turner if you do not have one... I'll go a little deeper into my part if you like.... I did post a little something about background information which leads up to some of this.... Operation "Tilt and OPs 'Red Cross" have been inter-woven over the years.. One of the coded lines during those OPs was from a song that was played over Miami radio... " Poinsiettia. Your branches speak to me of love... Pale moon casting shadows from above". If that was played over Miami or Swan Island radio.. then you were to ABORT the mission... just food for thought.... believe me as we go in to these OPS you will understand what some of this means and why... for now give me the benefit of the doubt... I will tie it all together for the forum and document it if they will let me..... Eddie Bayo was not brought out on our OPS of June of 63 and not sure what the end result of that came to..... Bill Pawley was disappointed as well as Richard Billings, Life Magazine and Bill Harvy, Miami CIA Covert Action Group Miami Station (OMC 235 TFW SEC C)...... Tosh
Tosh,
Thanks for the reply. I'll have to reread Deadly Secrets.
Question: have you ever met Loran Hall? He told the HSCA that he was in Martino's with Rip Robertson. From what I understand, Gerry Hemming and Hall did not get along.
DAve
The Christian Defense League
in JFK Online Seminars
Posted
Jim,
Thanks for the kind words.
A few things of note:
Loran Hall admitted to knowing "of" Oswald. He and a Cuban exile friend were going to harrass Oswald when he was passing out leaflets. Hall gave two conflicting dates: June of 1963 and Oct 1963.
Hall met with many of the same people in Dallas that Joseph Milteer did.
Clint Wheat would occasionally fill in for Col. Gale when Gale made his trips in the South US in his trailer. Gale would stop in Louisiana and visit Sen. William Rainich.
Rainich was an associate of Guy Banister.
Kenneth Goff claimed that Oswald was not unknown to the Dallas right wing community (and himself) prior to 11/22/63.
Gale and Milteer knew each other. Both ran on the platform of the Constitution Party.
Kenneth Goff was an associate of John Martino in 1966. I don't know of a prior association though.
Dave