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488th Military Intelligence Detachment


John Simkin

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In 1956 Jack Alston Crichton started up his own spy unit, the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment in Dallas. Crichton served as the unit's commander under Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer, who was in overall command of all Army Reserve units in East Texas. In an interview Crichton claimed that there were "about a hundred men in that unit and about forty or fifty of them were from the Dallas Police Department."

In November 1963 Jack Alston Crichton was involved in the arrangements of the visit that President John F. Kennedy made to Dallas. His close friend, Deputy Police Chief George L. Lumpkin, and a fellow member of the the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, drove the pilot car of Kennedy's motorcade. (Lumpkin would later tell the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he had been consulted by the Secret Service on motorcade security, and his input had eliminated an alternative route). Also in the car was Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer. The pilot car stopped briefly in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where Lumpkin spoke to a policeman controlling traffic at the corner of Houston and Elm.

As Russ Baker points out in Family of Secrets (2008) Crichton served as the "intelligence unit's only commander... until he retired from the 488th in 1967".

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFK488mid.htm

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See post How did the police first learn of 1026 N. Beckley? By Steve Thomas

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2331

and from PDS's Deep Politics & the Death of JFK:

p. 276 The Plot and the Coverup – Deep Politics and the Death of JFK by PDS

...two minutes earlier by Jack Alston Crichton, a right-wing Republican, oil operator, member of Army Intelligence Reserve (9 WH 106), and head of "a local Army Intelligence Unit" (WCD 386, SS 1058). Crichton knew Mamantov personally as a fellow petroleum geologist. He also knew him because Mamantov was a precinct chairman o the Republican party, for which Crichton became the 1964 candidate for governor of Texas.

It is not known how many Dallas policemen were also (as is apparently a widespread practice) members of the U.S. Army Reserve. One such reservist was Detective Adamik (7 WH 203), a member of the party which retrieved the rifle-blanket from the Paine garage and later reported what he overheard at Mamantov's interview of Marina about the rifle ("She said that it looked like her husband's rifle. She said that it was dark"; 24 WH291). Another member of Army Intelligence Reserve was Captain W. P. Gannaway, Revill's supervisor as head of the Dallas Police Special Service Bureau (WCD 1426.26; 19 WH 120); Gannaway's secretary was reported by an out-of-town police chief to be "closely connected" to Jack Ruby (WCD 86.151). This story was plausible, given the close connection between Ruby and the SSB, including men who participated in the search of the TSBD and the arrest of Oswald. Since the protection of visiting dignitaries was one of the SSB's responsibilities (5 WH48), Gannaway was involved in the meetings arranged by Secret Service advance man Winston Lawson for the Kennedy visit (5 WH39; 7 WH 580).

According to a news story in FBI files, in 1963 both Captain Gannaway and his subordinate Lieutenant Revill were assigned a special responsibility for "espionage and subversive activities" in Dallas. This was in conjunction with

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, military intelligence teams from the army, navy, and air force, and other federal agencies with investigators operating from headquarters here…The job of [Revill's] intelligence section in Capt. Gannaway's bureau…requires the closest cooperation with these other governmental agencies gathering intelligence on subversive groups suspected of espionage…With membership in a national police intelligence organization known as LEIU (Law Enforcement Intelligence Units) the local officers are able to get information almost immediately on suspected subversives when they move into Dallas. This information is exchanged by police units as these persons move from city to city…Employes in [industrial] plants are carefully screened by security conscious personnel officers, and in key jobs are given strict government security clearances. Industry is taking great strides to upgrade security practices. One such group in this area is the American Society for Industrial Security. 10

The possibility that Oswald was an informant for this centralized security team would explain his visit to the Dallas American Civil Liberties Union, a liberal group being investigated by Revill's intelligence section, in the company of an extreme right-winger (Michael Paine). 11.

One can see how easily a false legend for Oswald could have been generated in the shared files of this coordinated security campaign, involving the Dallas SSB, FBI, military intelligence, and the American Society for Industrial Security. Such a centralized file system could be the source for the recurring (and unexplained) inversion of Oswald's name, as Harvey Lee Oswald, in the files of the Dallas police (e.g., 19 WH 438, 24 WH 259), FBI (e.g., 23 WH 207, 23 WH 373), Secret Service (16 WH 721, 748), army intelligence, and navy intelligence. 12.

The most intriguing "Harvey Lee Oswald" document is Jack Revill's list of employees at the Texas School Book Depository, compiled right after the assassination, before Oswald had been apprehended for the Tippit murder. For some unexplained reason, Oswald's inverted name ("Harvey Lee Oswald") was at the very head of that list, accompanied by an address, "605 Elsbeth," that slightly misrepresented the address (602 Elsbeth) where he had resided a year earlier (24 WH 259). 13 The Elsbeth address does suggest that Oswald's data had been parked for some time before the assassination in an intelligence file, not hitherto identified. One possibility would be the files of the LEIU, the Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit, the intercity police-intelligence organization of which Revill as the lead local representative. LEIU's files, unlike ordinary police files, cannot be given to any civilian authorities and are treated as exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. As we shall see, it was also a frequent practice for the LEIU member intelligence units to collaborate with army intelligence. 14.

Another army reserve officer in Dealey plaza may have been Winston Lawson, the White House Secret Service agent responsible for the choice of the Kennedy motorcade route (4 WH 318). Lawson's first three reports of what happened on and before November 22 raise considerable questions about his performance……

Edited by William Kelly
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http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/w...Vol21_0301b.htm

WC Hearings Vol. 21, p. 578

About 9:30 a.m., November 22, 1963, Deputy Chief G. L. Lumpkin, joined by homicide detectives F. W. Turner and B. L. Senkel and Lt. Colonel George Whitmeyer, U.S. Army, Dallas Sub-secion Commnader, proceeded to Love Field over the route, as pilot car, to be taken by the President on the return trip. At this time, Detecive Senke and Turner and Colonel Whitmeyer were told that our mission would be to travel the motorcade route from Love Field to the Trade Mart. They were instructed we would be approximately one-fourth (1/4) mile ahead of the motorcade, and that we would be alert for motor vehicle accidents, fires and obstructions along the route. We would report anything we observed in the crowd or along the route that would be detrimental to the main party.

...Deputy Chief G. L. Lumplin turned Main Street to Houston Street, stopped momentarily at the corner of Houston and Elm Street and notified the man working traiffic at that corner that hte motorcade was about 2 or 3 minutes behind us.

Stevenson Exhibit No. 5053

We would observe buildings and other points as security measures and should anything arise that, in our opinion, might cause the motorcade to be stopped or to be placed in danger, it was to be immediately radioed by Channel 11 to the lead car occupied by Chief J. E. Curry, Sheriff J. E. Decker and two Secret Service agents.

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Find index of entire database here:

http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/data.htm

Then do edit-search to find a name. Also in searchable pdf format:

http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/image_index1.pdf

Then view documents here:

http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/

Thank you Linda,

You should write a book on basic research skills and save some students a lot of time.

I followed up by reading SS agent advance man Lawson's testimony, and he was grilled pretty hard - by Gerald Ford of all people, about who, exactly who was responsible for open windows along the motorcade route.

This Army Intell trained Counter-intelligence agent says that local police were responsible for open window along the motorcade route, but he couldn't acknowledge informing them that that was in fact the case.

Is anybody keeping track of who all actually servied in US Army Reserves and local police, SS, FBI and other law enforcement agencies?

BK

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John wrote:

...Deputy Police Chief George L. Lumpkin, and a fellow member of the the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, drove the pilot car of Kennedy's motorcade. (Lumpkin would later tell the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he had been consulted by the Secret Service on motorcade security, and his input had eliminated an alternative route). Also in the car was Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer. The pilot car stopped briefly in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where Lumpkin spoke to a policeman controlling traffic at the corner of Houston and Elm....

Does anyone know the name of this Dallas police officer who was stationed at Houston and Elm on traffic duty?

BK

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John wrote:

...Deputy Police Chief George L. Lumpkin, and a fellow member of the the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, drove the pilot car of Kennedy's motorcade. (Lumpkin would later tell the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he had been consulted by the Secret Service on motorcade security, and his input had eliminated an alternative route). Also in the car was Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer. The pilot car stopped briefly in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where Lumpkin spoke to a policeman controlling traffic at the corner of Houston and Elm....

Does anyone know the name of this Dallas police officer who was stationed at Houston and Elm on traffic duty?

BK

***************

DPD Officer Joe Marshall Smith......also there for crowd control..He was at the corner when a woman ran up to him,yelling..

"They're shooting the President from the bushes"....

He also thought the shots came from the bushes beside the overpass.......

Testimony Of Joe Marshall Smith

Vol V11 ......W/C......p.532- 535

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/smith_j1.htm

B......

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John wrote:

...Deputy Police Chief George L. Lumpkin, and a fellow member of the the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, drove the pilot car of Kennedy's motorcade. (Lumpkin would later tell the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he had been consulted by the Secret Service on motorcade security, and his input had eliminated an alternative route). Also in the car was Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer. The pilot car stopped briefly in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where Lumpkin spoke to a policeman controlling traffic at the corner of Houston and Elm....

Does anyone know the name of this Dallas police officer who was stationed at Houston and Elm on traffic duty?

BK

***************

DPD Officer Joe Marshall Smith......also there for crowd control..He was at the corner when a woman ran up to him,yelling..

"They're shooting the President from the bushes"....

He also thought the shots came from the bushes beside the overpass.......

Testimony Of Joe Marshall Smith

Vol V11 ......W/C......p.532- 535

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/smith_j1.htm

B......

Hi B,

Yea, I got Joe Marshall Smith, Edgar L. Smith (7H 567) and Welcome Eugene Barnett (7H 541), but none of them mention the advance car stopping to talk or what they talked about. J.M. Smith was a Navy man, but the other two were not asked if they had served in the Army or were in the Army Reserves.

There may be a film or photo of the car stopped and which cop they talked to.

BK

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John wrote:

...Deputy Police Chief George L. Lumpkin, and a fellow member of the the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, drove the pilot car of Kennedy's motorcade. (Lumpkin would later tell the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he had been consulted by the Secret Service on motorcade security, and his input had eliminated an alternative route). Also in the car was Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer. The pilot car stopped briefly in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where Lumpkin spoke to a policeman controlling traffic at the corner of Houston and Elm....

Does anyone know the name of this Dallas police officer who was stationed at Houston and Elm on traffic duty?

BK

***************

DPD Officer Joe Marshall Smith......also there for crowd control..He was at the corner when a woman ran up to him,yelling..

"They're shooting the President from the bushes"....

He also thought the shots came from the bushes beside the overpass.......

Testimony Of Joe Marshall Smith

Vol V11 ......W/C......p.532- 535

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/smith_j1.htm

B......

Hi B,

Yea, I got Joe Marshall Smith, Edgar L. Smith (7H 567) and Welcome Eugene Barnett (7H 541), but none of them mention the advance car stopping to talk or what they talked about. J.M. Smith was a Navy man, but the other two were not asked if they had served in the Army or were in the Army Reserves.

There may be a film or photo of the car stopped and which cop they talked to.

BK

Gannaway is mentioned in the article regarding Operation Silver Dollar, which is on both mary ferrell's site and JFK Lancer. He retired from the DPD in 1971 and died in 2000, I believe. He was very involved in the marijuana conviction of Candy Barr aka Juanita Slusher.

Another factoid would be the following, which took place about a week after the assassination of JFK. How important it is I am not certain.

Criminal Intelligence Report, by D. N. Boyd. Report to Captain W. P. Gannaway through Lt. Jack Revill concerning the arrest of Anthony Rizzo in Arlington, Texas., (Photocopy Signed), 11/30/63. Page 1

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Robert : Gannaway is mentioned in the article regarding Operation Silver Dollar, which is on both mary ferrell's site and JFK Lancer. He retired from the DPD in 1971 and died in 2000, I believe. He was very involved in the marijuana conviction of Candy Barr aka Juanita Slusher.

Another factoid would be the following, which took place about a week after the assassination of JFK. How important it is I am not certain.

Criminal Intelligence Report, by D. N. Boyd. Report to Captain W. P. Gannaway through Lt. Jack Revill concerning the arrest of Anthony Rizzo in Arlington, Texas., (Photocopy Signed), 11/30/63. Page 1

When you say you are not certain of how important it is, I assume you have some thoughts about it. I wonder if you could elaborate, please?

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Robert : Gannaway is mentioned in the article regarding Operation Silver Dollar, which is on both mary ferrell's site and JFK Lancer. He retired from the DPD in 1971 and died in 2000, I believe. He was very involved in the marijuana conviction of Candy Barr aka Juanita Slusher.

Another factoid would be the following, which took place about a week after the assassination of JFK. How important it is I am not certain.

Criminal Intelligence Report, by D. N. Boyd. Report to Captain W. P. Gannaway through Lt. Jack Revill concerning the arrest of Anthony Rizzo in Arlington, Texas., (Photocopy Signed), 11/30/63. Page 1

When you say you are not certain of how important it is, I assume you have some thoughts about it. I wonder if you could elaborate, please?

Well there's no hidden meaning, I mean the obvious point is was Anthony Rizzo's arrest related in some way to the JFK Assassination, or was it just coincidental that it happened a few day's after the assassination. Thats all. Until late last night I wasn't aware it had even happened.

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John wrote:

...Deputy Police Chief George L. Lumpkin, and a fellow member of the the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, drove the pilot car of Kennedy's motorcade. (Lumpkin would later tell the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he had been consulted by the Secret Service on motorcade security, and his input had eliminated an alternative route). Also in the car was Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer. The pilot car stopped briefly in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where Lumpkin spoke to a policeman controlling traffic at the corner of Houston and Elm....

Does anyone know the name of this Dallas police officer who was stationed at Houston and Elm on traffic duty?

BK

***************

DPD Officer Joe Marshall Smith......also there for crowd control..He was at the corner when a woman ran up to him,yelling..

"They're shooting the President from the bushes"....

He also thought the shots came from the bushes beside the overpass.......

Testimony Of Joe Marshall Smith

Vol V11 ......W/C......p.532- 535

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/smith_j1.htm

B......

Hi B,

Yea, I got Joe Marshall Smith, Edgar L. Smith (7H 567) and Welcome Eugene Barnett (7H 541), but none of them mention the advance car stopping to talk or what they talked about. J.M. Smith was a Navy man, but the other two were not asked if they had served in the Army or were in the Army Reserves.

There may be a film or photo of the car stopped and which cop they talked to.

BK

Bill,

I'm looking for a complete list of Dallas Police that were stationed in Dealey Plaza. Can you help me? Also, do you know if Welcome Eugene Barnett is still alive? What did he do in the years following the assassination?

Although you mentioned above that the two DP were not ASKED if they had served in the Army or were in the Army Reserves, do you have any information on their military history other than J. M. Smith was a Navy man?

Thank you.

Pamela

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John wrote:

...Deputy Police Chief George L. Lumpkin, and a fellow member of the the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, drove the pilot car of Kennedy's motorcade. (Lumpkin would later tell the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he had been consulted by the Secret Service on motorcade security, and his input had eliminated an alternative route). Also in the car was Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer. The pilot car stopped briefly in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where Lumpkin spoke to a policeman controlling traffic at the corner of Houston and Elm....

Does anyone know the name of this Dallas police officer who was stationed at Houston and Elm on traffic duty?

BK

***************

DPD Officer Joe Marshall Smith......also there for crowd control..He was at the corner when a woman ran up to him,yelling..

"They're shooting the President from the bushes"....

He also thought the shots came from the bushes beside the overpass.......

Testimony Of Joe Marshall Smith

Vol V11 ......W/C......p.532- 535

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/smith_j1.htm

B......

Hi B,

Yea, I got Joe Marshall Smith, Edgar L. Smith (7H 567) and Welcome Eugene Barnett (7H 541), but none of them mention the advance car stopping to talk or what they talked about. J.M. Smith was a Navy man, but the other two were not asked if they had served in the Army or were in the Army Reserves.

There may be a film or photo of the car stopped and which cop they talked to.

BK

Bill,

I'm looking for a complete list of Dallas Police that were stationed in Dealey Plaza. Can you help me? Also, do you know if Welcome Eugene Barnett is still alive? What did he do in the years following the assassination?

Although you mentioned above that the two DP were not ASKED if they had served in the Army or were in the Army Reserves, do you have any information on their military history other than J. M. Smith was a Navy man?

Thank you.

Pamela

No, No list, no info on background or what became of cops.

Peter Dale Scott's book that you mention also has references not checked, like the law enforcement information network out of California, that still keeps files they share with police intell units.

But Captain Gannaway and Revell were the two who were in charge of intelligence unit and their men were most likely all trained Army Reservists.

They may have filed affidativits or reports that I haven't checked and may be here:

Find index of entire database here:

http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/data.htm

Then do edit-search to find a name. Also in searchable pdf format:

http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/image_index1.pdf

Then view documents here:

http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/

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See post How did the police first learn of 1026 N. Beckley? By Steve Thomas

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2331

and from PDS's Deep Politics & the Death of JFK:

p. 276 The Plot and the Coverup – Deep Politics and the Death of JFK by PDS

...two minutes earlier by Jack Alston Crichton, a right-wing Republican, oil operator, member of Army Intelligence Reserve (9 WH 106), and head of "a local Army Intelligence Unit" (WCD 386, SS 1058). Crichton knew Mamantov personally as a fellow petroleum geologist. He also knew him because Mamantov was a precinct chairman o the Republican party, for which Crichton became the 1964 candidate for governor of Texas.

It is not known how many Dallas policemen were also (as is apparently a widespread practice) members of the U.S. Army Reserve. One such reservist was Detective Adamik (7 WH 203), a member of the party which retrieved the rifle-blanket from the Paine garage and later reported what he overheard at Mamantov's interview of Marina about the rifle ("She said that it looked like her husband's rifle. She said that it was dark"; 24 WH291). Another member of Army Intelligence Reserve was Captain W. P. Gannaway, Revill's supervisor as head of the Dallas Police Special Service Bureau (WCD 1426.26; 19 WH 120); Gannaway's secretary was reported by an out-of-town police chief to be "closely connected" to Jack Ruby (WCD 86.151). This story was plausible, given the close connection between Ruby and the SSB, including men who participated in the search of the TSBD and the arrest of Oswald. Since the protection of visiting dignitaries was one of the SSB's responsibilities (5 WH48), Gannaway was involved in the meetings arranged by Secret Service advance man Winston Lawson for the Kennedy visit (5 WH39; 7 WH 580).

According to a news story in FBI files, in 1963 both Captain Gannaway and his subordinate Lieutenant Revill were assigned a special responsibility for "espionage and subversive activities" in Dallas. This was in conjunction with

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, military intelligence teams from the army, navy, and air force, and other federal agencies with investigators operating from headquarters here…The job of [Revill's] intelligence section in Capt. Gannaway's bureau…requires the closest cooperation with these other governmental agencies gathering intelligence on subversive groups suspected of espionage…With membership in a national police intelligence organization known as LEIU (Law Enforcement Intelligence Units) the local officers are able to get information almost immediately on suspected subversives when they move into Dallas. This information is exchanged by police units as these persons move from city to city…Employes in [industrial] plants are carefully screened by security conscious personnel officers, and in key jobs are given strict government security clearances. Industry is taking great strides to upgrade security practices. One such group in this area is the American Society for Industrial Security. 10

The possibility that Oswald was an informant for this centralized security team would explain his visit to the Dallas American Civil Liberties Union, a liberal group being investigated by Revill's intelligence section, in the company of an extreme right-winger (Michael Paine). 11.

One can see how easily a false legend for Oswald could have been generated in the shared files of this coordinated security campaign, involving the Dallas SSB, FBI, military intelligence, and the American Society for Industrial Security. Such a centralized file system could be the source for the recurring (and unexplained) inversion of Oswald's name, as Harvey Lee Oswald, in the files of the Dallas police (e.g., 19 WH 438, 24 WH 259), FBI (e.g., 23 WH 207, 23 WH 373), Secret Service (16 WH 721, 748), army intelligence, and navy intelligence. 12.

The most intriguing "Harvey Lee Oswald" document is Jack Revill's list of employees at the Texas School Book Depository, compiled right after the assassination, before Oswald had been apprehended for the Tippit murder. For some unexplained reason, Oswald's inverted name ("Harvey Lee Oswald") was at the very head of that list, accompanied by an address, "605 Elsbeth," that slightly misrepresented the address (602 Elsbeth) where he had resided a year earlier (24 WH 259). 13 The Elsbeth address does suggest that Oswald's data had been parked for some time before the assassination in an intelligence file, not hitherto identified. One possibility would be the files of the LEIU, the Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit, the intercity police-intelligence organization of which Revill as the lead local representative. LEIU's files, unlike ordinary police files, cannot be given to any civilian authorities and are treated as exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. As we shall see, it was also a frequent practice for the LEIU member intelligence units to collaborate with army intelligence. 14.

Another army reserve officer in Dealey plaza may have been Winston Lawson, the White House Secret Service agent responsible for the choice of the Kennedy motorcade route (4 WH 318). Lawson's first three reports of what happened on and before November 22 raise considerable questions about his performance……

--------

Side note here on LEIU. My brief "research" on this topic in conjunction with Many Pena and the RFK Assassination indicates that the LEIU was more a police liason with the CIA than with Military intelligence, although there could have been some overlap with foreign operations like Office of Public Safety program that Manny Pena worked with in South America before returning to be put in charge of Special Unit Senator for the RFK "investigation" by the LAPD. The LEIU was seen to have the closest relations with the LAPD and the Chicago Police, with most other departments working more closely with the FBI, although that is according to just one source.

See Did the LEIU Facilitate CIA Involvement in the RFK Assassination.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=10268

See also Manny Pena

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=11853

Also the relationship described by James W. Dougless of the Chicago Intelligence Cop who was involved in both the 11-2-63 abortive? Chicago Plot, and later who was also the very same lead cop in the Fred Hampton political killing in 1969 sounds very much like he had an LEIU affiliation.

On this see Thomas Arthur Vallee> Chacago's Patsy in Waiting?

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=12867

On the other side of the coin there is also the Millitary Intellience connection with the Memphis Police Department that was embodied in the alledged role of General Ralph Yarborough in Memphis on 4-4-68.

On that one see Thy Will Be Done Thread.

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