Al Wichtrich--Where's your Testimony?

[Jill Craven]

LIHUFF--Al R. Wichtrich--is one of the few people that the HSCA wants to interview from Mexico. As President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico City, he was high profile, and arrangements were made so he could be brought in carefully to give his testimony. While the Committee was frustrated by attempts to find other persons of interest in Mexico City who couldn't be found, it was hard to lose Wichtrich. However, his testimony does seem to be lost. Does anyone have any idea if it was taken, and, if so, where it went? Is there any indication that his job was more than passing on political info he encountered? He worked at Royal Crown Cola, a subsidiary of Pepsi, until 1968--was he at the Nixon/Pepsi event in Dallas?

Wichtrich has a pretty intriguing background for an executive--he was in the Army for a couple years, then DC for a couple years, then Panama for a couple years. See http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=26842&relPageId=2 From books, it seems he's working in the Far East in the 1940s, working the "rat lines" in China and such. In 1997 he wrote a book MIS-X top secret (which I have not seen) that gives this short bio: "Wichtrich attended the University of Arizona from 1934 to 1939. In 1938, Wichtrich became an officer in the U.S. Horse Cavalry. From 1942-1945 he served in the China Burma India Theater and was decorated with the Legion of Merit and Special Breast Order Yun Hiu. Following his successful military career, Wichtrich used his charisma and know-how to become a successful businessman and community leader in Mexico. He was also employed by the Central Intelligence Agency during this time. A.R. Wichtrich retired to Tuscon."

In my estimation, he seems to have quite a strong military background.

What more do we know of of Wichtrich and what happened to his testimony? Does anyone have a photo of him?

Thanks for any info,

Jill

[John Simkin]

Wichtrich has a pretty intriguing background for an executive--he was in the Army for a couple years, then DC for a couple years, then Panama for a couple years. See http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=26842&relPageId=2 From books, it seems he's working in the Far East in the 1940s, working the "rat lines" in China and such. In 1997 he wrote a book MIS-X top secret (which I have not seen) that gives this short bio: "Wichtrich attended the University of Arizona from 1934 to 1939.

You can sign up with Amazon who will let you known when the book becomes available from any second-hand bookshops.

[John Simkin]

In 1938, Wichtrich became an officer in the U.S. Horse Cavalry. From 1942-1945 he served in the China Burma India Theater and was decorated with the Legion of Merit and Special Breast Order Yun Hiu.

Jill, you might want to look at this thread:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=13906

It seems that Wichtrich was in China at the same time as John K. Singlaub, Ray S. Cline, Richard Helms, E. Howard Hunt, Mitchell WerBell, Paul Helliwell, Robert Emmett Johnson, Lucien Conein, Tommy Corcoran, Whiting Willauer and William Pawley.

[John Dolva]

All I can offer is a suggestion based on a search of the name Odio in meaning and prevalence and came across an Odio ''something' giro that led to a family tree going from Odio to Martinez, Rodriguez and a dip into Odio again and then Martinez (afa I can remember). I choose that person because I thought there might be a Cuba connection, which was tag suggestive tag of : Santiago.