The death of Harold Eugene Vest

[Herb Vest]

Six years ago, I started an investigation into the death of my father, Harold Eugene (aka Buddy) Vest. He was discovered hanged in his cabinet shop in Gainesville, TX in 1946. His body was clothed in a girdle and woman’s panties, leading to the presumption that the manner of his death was accidental while performing an autoerotic act of asphyxiation. However, from my investigation, it is clear that Dad was murdered during an interrogation by torture and humiliation.

The motive of the interrogation by torture and subsequent murder is not known. However, circumstances suggest a present day interest by an intelligence agency in the subject of the interrogation.

There were two individuals located across the street from the crime scene: a sailor (later to become a CIA employee; died in 2000) and a person dressed as a soldier (died in 2004).

Dad had been assigned to Camp Custer, Battlecreek, MI in 1943 through 1945. During part of that time, James Jesus Angleton attended a course given by the Military Police at Camp Custer during 1943. Angleton’s wife’s uncle (deceased), a mining engineer, located in El Paso in 1946 did business with an individual closely associated with the soldier on the scene. Although he was discharged from the Army six months earlier, the soldier was on the scene of Dad’s murder dressed in the uniform of a PFC.

Dad was sent to the ETO in March 1945. He was assigned to the 711th Engineer Base Depot Company at the port of Antwerp. Investigative results indicate a possible involvement by Major General Clayton Bissell, War Department G-2 (Intelligence) until 26 Jan 1946. His next assignment was to the London Embassy as Military Attaché.

My interest in the forum is to ascertain if there is any connection between intelligence agents and agencies involved in the Kennedy Assassination or Watergate to the death of my dad. It is known that the sailor was in the CIA during the period that both of these operations were being conducted.

[John Simkin]

Six years ago, I started an investigation into the death of my father, Harold Eugene (aka Buddy) Vest. He was discovered hanged in his cabinet shop in Gainesville, TX in 1946. His body was clothed in a girdle and woman’s panties, leading to the presumption that the manner of his death was accidental while performing an autoerotic act of asphyxiation. However, from my investigation, it is clear that Dad was murdered during an interrogation by torture and humiliation.

The motive of the interrogation by torture and subsequent murder is not known. However, circumstances suggest a present day interest by an intelligence agency in the subject of the interrogation.

There were two individuals located across the street from the crime scene: a sailor (later to become a CIA employee; died in 2000) and a person dressed as a soldier (died in 2004).

Dad had been assigned to Camp Custer, Battlecreek, MI in 1943 through 1945. During part of that time, James Jesus Angleton attended a course given by the Military Police at Camp Custer during 1943. Angleton’s wife’s uncle (deceased), a mining engineer, located in El Paso in 1946 did business with an individual closely associated with the soldier on the scene. Although he was discharged from the Army six months earlier, the soldier was on the scene of Dad’s murder dressed in the uniform of a PFC.

Dad was sent to the ETO in March 1945. He was assigned to the 711th Engineer Base Depot Company at the port of Antwerp. Investigative results indicate a possible involvement by Major General Clayton Bissell, War Department G-2 (Intelligence) until 26 Jan 1946. His next assignment was to the London Embassy as Military Attaché.

My interest in the forum is to ascertain if there is any connection between intelligence agents and agencies involved in the Kennedy Assassination or Watergate to the death of my dad. It is known that the sailor was in the CIA during the period that both of these operations were being conducted.

This is not an uncommon way for agents to kill people who pose a serious threat to the intelligence services. What usually happens is that the family does what it can to cover-up such a death. For example, here is a report on the death of Jonathan Moyle that appeared in the Guardian on 2nd June 1990:

British officials in Chile are claiming that the dead defence journalist Jonathan Moyle was a sexual deviant who hanged himself while attempting to obtain pleasure. It is understood that members of MI5 have made the same assertion in London.

Last night Mr Moyle's father, Anthony Moyle, rejected the claim: "Nothing could be further from the truth. My son, my wife and myself were very close. This is just foul. What on earth possessed somebody to say this?"

No evidence has been provided to support the claims, which will smear Jonathan Moyle's reputation as investigators in Chile are casting doubt on the police assertion, immediately after his death, that he committed suicide.

Mr Moyle, aged 28 of Devon, was found hanged in the wardrobe of his room in the Carrera Hotel in Santiago on March 31.

He worked for the magazine Defense Helicopter World and was in Chile for the biennial Air and Space Fair put on by the Chilean Air Force.

He was interested in a Bell helicopter that the Chilean company Industrias Cardoen is converting to multi-purpose use, especially for Third World conditions and economies. He was then due to travel to Bolivia to write about military efforts there to combat drugs.

His interest in the helicopter - and suggestions that Iraq was trying to acquire it - plus the investigation into drugs have given rise to suggestions that he was the victim of skulduggery by international arms dealers or drug traffickers.

His family and friends in Britain were incredulous at the suicide explanation for his death. They pointed out that he had no history of depression and was about to get married.

According to colleagues, immediately before his death Mr Moyle was in excellent spirits, full of work projects and happy about his forthcoming marriage. It is understood that letters were found on him in which he wrote fondly of his honeymoon plans, trees he was planting in his garden, and a forthcoming visit to his prospective in-laws in Germany.

Mr Moyle believes his son's death was connected with his interest in the Cardoen helicopter.

"Before he died, he talked to Mr [Carlos] Cardoen himself," he said. "The judge [investigating the death] has detailed drawings of weapons which the Cardoen people were going to fit on to the helicopter and export to Iraq. My son would probably have printed that this would have made it potentially an attack helicopter."

However, the helicopter conversion has been well known for some time, and Mr Cardoen's dealings with the Iraqi regime are also well known. He said recently that Iraq would certainly be a potential customer.

His father refused to go along wih the cover-up and eventually got the authorities to admit that he had been murdered.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/60769.stm

An inquest into the death of a British defence journalist has found that he was unlawfully killed.

The verdict comes nearly eight years after Jonathan Moyle was found hanging in a wardrobe in Chile.

Jonathan Moyle, the 28-year-old editor of the magazine Defence Helicopter World, was found dead in room 1406 of Santiago's Carrera Hotel in March, 1990.

The original inquest into the death of Mr Moyle, whose family are from east Devon, opened in Exeter in November, 1990.

But it was adjourned until now by coroner Richard Van Oppen after a pathologist said his inquiries could not be completed because vital organs had already been removed.

The dead man's father, retired teacher Tony Moyle, 68, has said there was "no question" that his son was killed because he was about to expose an arms deal between Iraq and a Chilean arms dealer.

Mr Moyle, who claimed his son was injected with a fatal dose of poison after first being sedated with drugged coffee, has spent £10,000 in a bid to bring the killers to justice.

The Chilean authorities at first dismissed the death of the former RAF helicopter pilot as suicide.

But in December 1991, following pressure from the Moyle family, a Chilean judicial investigation concluded he had been murdered.

Mr Moyle had been attending a defence conference in Chile when he was found dead in the hotel.

In 1993, after an identity parade in Chile failed to identify a suspect, the murder hunt was halted.

The family's claim of a cover-up has been backed up by a book on Mr Moyle's death written by Wensley Clark. In his book - The Valkyrie Operation - Mr Clark alleges that Mr Moyle was killed by local hitmen.

He further alleges that the hitmen were hired by to protect a Chilean arms dealer's £300m plan to sell helicopter "gunship kits" to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein just before the Gulf War.

The arms dealer, Carlos Cardoen, denies he had anything to do with Mr Moyle's death and has produced his own website proclaiming his innocence.

The investigation into Jonathan Moyle's death was reopened by the Santiago Court of Appeal late last year following representations from a lawyer representing the family.