John Koch Gene

[Steve Rosen]

Very cool, James. Good to see you. Your insights and numerous contributions here continue to spur on researchers.

For those who don't know, get to searching ...

[James Richards]

Very cool, James. Good to see you. Your insights and numerous contributions here continue to spur on researchers.

For those who don't know, get to searching ...

Thanks, Steve.

I appreciate the kind words.

[Ken Pierce]

I second that Steve. I hope all is good in your world James.

[Thomas Graves]

Following these important but older topics - Robert Emmett Johnson, Cubans in Scandinavia, and AMHINT and the Assassination of JFK - I think it would be beneficial to start a new topic on John Koch Gene.

John Koch Gene, or Koch as he liked to be called, was AMHINT 26 - a CIA asset / DRE member. AMHINT was the name given to the leaders of the DRE; AMSPELL was the cryptonym for the CIA's relationship with the DRE. AMSPELL files refer to the group and its activities; AMHINT files refer to the individuals.

A note in the report entitled “Separate Tracks: Agency Planning – Mafia Plotting” that had been written by Jack Pfeiffer, the CIA’s in-house historian, in September 1983 -claims that “AMHINT was related to the work of the Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil (DRE).” Pfeiffer then goes on to say that he found a document that included AMHINT request of 14 January 1961 for “Silenciadores.” These were rifles with silencers and telescopic sights.

Documents on Koch make it clear he received AMOT training under David Morales and was infiltrated into Cuba. Afterwords, many of these individuals, because of their age and as former students linked up with the DRE.

Koch first appeared on a CIA list of DRE infiltrators in 1961 and attended the World Youth Festival in Helsinki Finland in July, 1962 (initially staying at the same Hotel - Klaus Kurkias - as Lee Harvey Oswald did three years prior). Koch was a close associate of Manuel Artime & Rafael Quintero.

Koch, also an associate of David Ferrie, was arrested July 31, 1963 when the FBI raided an illegal DRE dynamite cache on Lake Pontchartrain at LaCombe. [At William J. McLaney's cottage on 31st Street in Lacombe, LA -- T. Graves via Chris Newton]

The Associated Press reported, "FBI agents swooped down on a house in a resort section near here today and seized more than a ton of dynamite and 20 bomb casings. An informed source said the explosives were part of a cache to be used in an attack on Cuba. But the FBI would only say that the materials were seized in connection with an investigation of an effort to carry out a military operation from the United States against a country with which the United States is at peace...."

The materials seized by the FBI included 48 cases of dynamite, 20 firing caps, M-1 rifles, grenades, and 55 gallons of napalm. The FBI arrested [sic?] two men: Sam Benton, a conduit between William McClaney and the anti-Castro Cubans, and Richard Lauchli, co-founder of the Minutemen and a close friend of Jack Ruby.

ARRESTED [sic] -- actually they were "detained" and released AT LACOMBE:

John Koch Gene, Sam Benton, Richard Lauchli, Earl J. Wassem Jr. Ralph Folkerts, Victor Espinosa, Carlos Eduardo Hernandez Sanchez, Acela Pedros Amores, Miguel Alvarez Jimenez, Antontio Soto Vasquez, Victor Panque.

In response to FBI queries, Carlos Hernandez took the Fifth Amendment about the dynamite, and said he was associated with Manuel Artime. The FBI questioned Victor Paneque about the explosives. Carlos Quiroga told the New Orleans District Attorney's Office that Victor Paneque was in charge of training at this camp. The CIA reported: "His file contains no information to indicate connection in the LaCombe, Louisiana, area."

HEMMING 1994: "The men at the LaCombe training camp were the top terrorists in the Cuban community." - Nodule 18, page 119

In August of 1963, Koch and Victor Hernandez (AM/HINT 25) were involved in a plot to bomb Cuban targets using explosives sourced out of New Orleans.

Koch was born in Havanna (May 29, 1940), 'had a white look,' and allegedly made a trip to Texas in the week leading up to the assassination. Just speculation, but it is possible Koch moved on to Artime’s AMWORLD project in Nicaragua after the assassination.

Some sources on John Koch Gene - AMHINT 26

Koch File - Finland Trip

FBI file - Lake Ponchartrain

The Road to Dallas - David Kaiser

[emphasis added by T. Graves]

bumped

I just found this Harvey and Lee (pg 553-4) quote on another website:

Few people today realize that there were actually two separate factions of

Cuban exiles-one with close ties to Robert Kennedy (moderates), and

another with close ties to the CIA (right wind radicals). In the summer

of 1963 President Kennedy, reacting to criticism that his administration

was not doing enough to stop para- military activities against Cuba,

ordered the FBI to get tough with the Cuban exiles. The communist-hating

Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, undoubtedly knew the administration

was seeking rapprochment with Cuba and was reluctant to follow the

President's instructions and close down the camps.

Hoover knew all about the 6 exile training camps on Lake Poncharrtain

through New Orleans FBI agents Warren DeBruey and Regis Kennedy. He knew

that one of the camps was loated on land owned by William Julius McLaney,

who had close ties to Robert Kennedy. Hoover responded to President

Kennedy's order by sending FBI agents to close down ONLY the "McLaney

Camp." This was Hoover's way of thumbing his nose at President Kennedy's

orders to close down the camps, and it placed the Kennedys in a potential

embarrassing position if Robert Kennedy's ties to William McLaney became

public.

On July 31, 1963 the Associated Press reported, "FBI agents swooped down

on a house in a resort section near here today and seized more than a ton

of dynamite and 20 bomb casings. An informed source said he explosivies

were part of a cache to be used in an attack on Cuba. But the FBI would

only say that the materials were seized in connection with an

investigation of an effort to carry out a military operation from the

United States against a country with which the Unites States is a

peace....."

The materials seized by the FBI included 48 cases of dynamite, 20 firing

caps, M-1 rifles, grenades, and 55 gallons of napalm. The FBI arrested

two men: Sam Benton, a conduit between William McLaney and the

anti-Castro Cubans, and Richard Lauchli, co-founder of the Minutemen and a

close friend of Jack Ruby's.

From newspaper articles it appeared to the public the FBI was doing it's

job by confiscating illegal explosives. But, no indictments were handed

down against either of the men who were arrested, and the 11 men who had

been detained were quietly released. Neither the President nor the

Attorney General were able to complain publicly about the FBI raid because

they feared that Hoover might make their relatitionship with McLaney known

to the press.

The FBI's raid on the McLaney Camp did not affect David Ferrie and Guy

Bannister's close relationship with the CIA nor with the camps. Thomas

Compton, a friend of Ferrie's, drove him to Guy Bannister's office during

the early fall of 1963. Bannister and Ferrie then went to Mancuso's

Restaurant and talked while Compton sat at another table.

Efforts to eliminate Castro were not limited to the camps at Lake

Pontcharrtain. In late summer the DRE (Cuban Student Directorate) took

out an advertisement in "See," a national tabloid, and offered a

ten-million-dollar reward to anyone helping to assassinate Fidel Castro.

DRE delegate Carlos Bringuier was interviewed by the Warren Commission but

never menioned, nor was he asked, about the advertisement or the source of

the ten-million-dollar reward (undoubtedly from the CIA).

Desmond Fitzgerald, the former head of the Special Affairs Staff in Miami

(formerly Task Force W), had been transferred to Mexico City and was in

charge of assassination plots against Castro-in direct violation of

Attorney General Robert Kennedy's orders. One such plot involved placing

an unusually spectacular seashell on the ocean floor n an area where

Castro went skin diving. When the shell was lifted, hopefully by Castro,

an explosive device would be triggered. Another plot involved poison

cigars and yet another involved contaminating a skin-diving suit and

breathing apparatus with tuberculosis bacilli and spores from a virulent

skin disease called "Madura foot."

These and other outrageous schemes to eliminate the Cuban leader may have

been intentionally leaked to the people connected with Cuban intelligence

in Miami. By leaking such information the public would be tricked into

believing that when Castro learned of he plots against him, he

*RETALIATED* by ordering the assassination of President Kennedy. [-- John Armstrong in Harvey and Lee]

Armstrong says Sam Benton and Richard Lauchli were arrested. Well, they were on the FBI's list of eleven people detained during the July 31, 1963, raid in Lacombe. I'm starting to wonder how many people if any were actually arrested -- if any. Or were they all briefly "detained" and released?

--Tommy

Edited August 19, 2015 by Thomas Graves

[Chris Newton]

Thanks Tommie for finding this thread and bumping it.

[Thomas Graves]

Here is a Garrison memo with the list of people who were "involved" in the McLaney Cottage arrest:

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/T%20Disk/Training%20Camps/Item%2018.pdf

The list was somehow purloined for Garrison by his assistant Gurvich.

--Tommy

[Paul Brancato]

Tommy - likewise thanks for unearthing this thread. Do we know for sure that this was the only camp raided, or that RFK had ties to its leader?

Also interesting that Lauchli was so incompletely identified.

[Chris Newton]

Paul -

I don't think the explosives cache was a "camp" but I do think there were one or more camps raided at the same time.

I can't say for a fact that William McLaney had the same access to both Kennedys that his brother, Michael, had. Maybe someone else can answer that.

[Chris Newton]

Koch's brother Herman was killed during the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

Herman Koch – Killed in combat

Age: 22. U.S. citizen. Date: 17-04-61.

Location: Bay of Pigs, Las Villas province.

Occupation: Engineering student at University of Villanueva, Havana.

Place of residence: Havana.

Description: Paratrooper, member of the 2506 Brigade, killed in combat during the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Just wanted to add another detail I stumbled on:

This Brigade 2506 Document indicates Herman Koch was a "Lanza Cohetes 3.5" which probably meant he was part of a M-20 Bazooka Team.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/63765363/Miembros-de-La-Brigada

Edited August 19, 2015 by Chris Newton

[Thomas Graves]

Tommy - likewise thanks for unearthing this thread. Do we know for sure that this was the only camp raided, or that RFK had ties to its leader?

Also interesting that Lauchli was so incompletely identified.

Hi Paul,

That's one of the things I'm trying to figure out. I think as many as four camps in that area may have been raided on one night and it's logical to assume that the night in question was 7/31/63 when Bill McLaney's cottage on N. 31st St. in Lacombe was hit and the eleven guys were "arrested." If that's true, then one must ask -- Why was the McLaney's Cottage Bust the only one that got any publicity? Because that's the only one that had an arms / explosives cache? To embarrass / control JFK and RFK due to their connections to the McLaney brothers? An attempt to "sabotage" JFK and RFK's AMWORLD project (which the CIA was forced to support but didn't like)?

Someone in a position to know said there were six camps around LaCombe. I'm trying to remember who that was...

--Tommy

Edited August 19, 2015 by Thomas Graves