My "Serious Research" Results

[Thomas Graves]

On 4/20/2007 at 11:50 PM, Thomas Graves said:

Thomas Graves said:

John Simkin said:

Could you please direct us towards your research into the JFK assassination. I seem to have missed those postings.

___________________________________________

Dear John,

I totally understand. After all, you are a very busy man and you can't be expected to catch everything, can you now.

If you were to re-read my Forum-required biography, you could freshen your memory and realize that I never claimed to be a researcher. I did state, however, that I hoped to learn a lot about the assassination, to ask an occasional question, and to perhaps even make some small contribution from time-to-time.

Now regarding the last point, above, I'd like to remind you of my insignificant little stab at "serious research" when I figured out which high school Larry Florer most likely attended in the Oak Cliff part of Dallas, and then contacted the director of the alumni association of said high school and got her to look up Larry Florer's picture in the year book, scan it, and e-mail it to me as an attachment. Then I e-mailed it to James Richards and he was kind enough to post it, for technically-challenged-little-old-me. It was especially kind of James to do that, since the photo of this real-life Larry Florer tended to challenge his previously-held belief, (and the fervently-held belief of many other assassination "researchers") that the guy who was arrested under very suspicious circumstances in the Dal-Tex building and had the gall to claim to be Larry Florer, well, ....  really was Larry Florer and not, unfortunately, Theodore Shackley, aka the "Blond Ghost", nor the mysterious INTERPEN member, Edmund Kolby!

I also seem to remember asking you a research-related question which you, predictably, refused or failed to respond to-- I asked you to ask your mysterious "Undercover Agent" contact (about whom you made us aware on the then-current "Edwin P. Wilson" thread) whether or not he knew anything about an old (since deceased) drinking friend of mine in La Jolla by the name of Lt. Col. Verner R. Carlson (Ret), and his possible former relationship, with Paul Ogg (who worked for David Sanchez Morales in "Operation Phoenix."  FWIW, Carlson graduated from the Naval Academy in 1955, transferred to the Army, and seconded to CIA. As a CIA officer, Carlson was Col. John Paul Vann's "right hand man" in Vietnam, and was Chief of Intelligence in (or for?) "IV Corps" during the war.

Oh, and I almost forgot... I asked my father to ask his buddy, Gen. Victor "Brute" Krulak (Ret), whether or not he remembered writing a letter to Fletcher Prouty in which he confirmed Prouty's suspicions that the "suit" passing the Three Tramps was indeed Edward Lansdale, and also whether or not Krulak could be persuaded, by viewing photographic "evidence," that the "suit" might have been Ronnie Ecker's favorite villain, Gen. Maxwell Turner, instead. Well, Ronnie, I tried.  But all I was able to get out of my rather conservative father was, "I asked 'Brute,' and he said he vaguely remembered writing the letter to Prouty, and all he said was that Prouty was a 'good guy,' and that Lansdale was a 'bad guy.'"  Then several weeks later when I asked my father whether or not he had ever gotten around to asking Krulak the second question, he said "Well, Thomas, 'Brute' seemed so irritated about being asked the first question that I just decided not to jeopardize my relationship with him by asking him about this "Is-It-Lansdale-Or-Is-It Turner" question of yours, so sorry, 'Big T," I'm just ain't gonna do it."

[...]

Sincerely,

--Thomas

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[...]

________________________________________

P.S. Since I posted this in 2007, I haven't done much "serious research" other than to verify that the former downtown San Diego bar called the "Gold Rail" (which Jack Ruby allegedly visited before the assassination, as referenced in a post assassination anonymously-written letter to RFK) wasn't a gay bar (that would be the Brass Rail in the Hillcrest part of San Diego) after all, but a notorious Mafia bar! See: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:7TS7jKhrU3sJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Bompensiero+%22gold+rail%22+%22frank+bomp+bompensiero%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

And I was able to determine, by visiting the History Room at the La Jolla Library, that a phone call made by David Ferrie to La Jolla in April, 1962, was to a bank which was later acquired by "The Mafia's Bank", you know, that real big one that was founded in San Francisco a long time ago?

And oh yeah, I was able to verify that Andres V. Cortes, whose car was spotted at the Soviet Embassy in Havana on November 23, 1963, really did, according to the La Jolla Blue Book telephone directory, live at 7818 Fay Avenue in La Jolla, California from 1964 through 1966. [The house was listed as being in "Transient" status (i.e. rented by some unnamed person who was not actually living there at the time) in 1963.]

Other than that, I ain't done nothing, I reckon.

--Tommy

 

12/29/16 Edit:  Oh yeah, and there was that recorded interview I did with retired ONI Special Agent Robert D. Steel a few years ago, wasn't there.  (The tape or dub of which Bill Kelley never did return to me, although he promised to do so several times...)

 

Edited February 9, 2018 by Thomas Graves

[Thomas Graves]

On 1/29/2012 at 3:49 PM, Thomas Graves said:

[...]

 

An update as regards this bit:

"I was able to verify that Andres V. Cortes, whose car was spotted at the Soviet Embassy in Havana on November 23, 1963, really did, according to the La Jolla Blue Book telephone directory, live at 7818 Fay Avenue in La Jolla, California from 1964 through 1966. (In the 1963 L. J. "Blue Book," the house was listed as being in "Transient" status, i.e. rented by some unnamed person who was not actually living there at the time.)"

 

I've just now found out that Alpha 66 had meetings in my home town back in the day.

Hmm

My friend says he was invited to attend one and did but didn't know what they were saying because only Spanish was spoken.

--  Tommy

PS  In case anyone's interested, here's the background CIA document: https://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=2324

Edited December 29, 2016 by Thomas Graves

[Paul Brancato]

Wow - so Ferrie, and probably Ruby, can be linked to La Jolla mafia connections, a bank and a bar. Can't help but wonder if some of the JBS SoCal were also linked.

[Thomas Graves]

13 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

Wow - so Ferrie, and probably Ruby, can be linked to La Jolla mafia connections, a bank and a bar. Can't help but wonder if some of the JBS SoCal were also linked.

Dear Paul,

Do I detect a note of sarcasm in your little post?

FWIW, the bar "The Gold Rail" no longer exists, but it was downtown San Diego, about 12 miles south of La Jolla.

Regardless, I wouldn't jump to conclusions about "Ruby's being linked to a Mafia bar in San Diego" just because some anonymous person sent RFK a letter and got his or her facts mixed up, unintentionally or otherwise.

--  Tommy

Do you have anything intelligent to say about a car registered to an Andres V. Cortes of La Jolla, California, being spotted at the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City one day after the assassination, and the fact that "Alpha 66" meetings were held in La Jolla?

Who was Andres V. Cortes / Cortez, anyway?

 

Edited December 30, 2016 by Thomas Graves

[Paul Brancato]

There really was no sarcasm. I have nothing intelligent to add but think your digging produced interesting results. 

[Thomas Graves]

On 12/29/2016 at 5:12 PM, Paul Brancato said:

There really was no sarcasm. I have nothing intelligent to add but think your digging produced interesting results. 

Dear Paul,

I guess the "paranoia" of some of the members is finally rubbing off on me.

If I don't watch it, next thing I know I'll be jumping up and down and insisting there were three Lees, Harveys, Marguerites, and Marinas.

(I thought you might have been making a little "dig" at me for my unintentionally providing occasional "ammunition" for Word Twister to, uhh, ... twist.)

--  Tommy

PS  "The Gold Rail Steakhouse" is mentioned in this article.  http://classicsandiego.com/restaurants/hula-hut/

 

 

(Transferred here from an old thread on Jack Ruby:)

On 12/19/2008 at 1:48 PM, Robert Howard said:

CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION

DECEMBER 1, 1963

U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL ROBERT F. KENNEDY & MR. ALLEN W. DULLES

WHITE HOUSE 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

DEAR SIRS: THERE ARE POSSIBLY NO TWO MEN ALIVE IN AMERICA WHO HAVE BROUGHT AS MUCH INJURY TO MY LIFE THE PAST FEW YEARS THAN ROBERT KENNEDY AND ALLEN DULLES, YET, RECALLING A TIME WHEN I HELD YOU BOTH IN HIGHEST ADMIRATION, I LOOK TO THOSE DAYS FROM WHICH I FEEL COMMENDED TO DIRECT THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION TO YOUR ATTENTION.

THE FOLLOWING MAY HAVE NO BEARING ON THE TRAGIC ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY, BUT I NEVER THE LESS SUBMIT IT FOR YOUR STUDY AND CONSIDERATION.

1.Monday, November 25, 1963, while watching television camera scenes of Lee Harvey Oswald being moved from the Dallas City Police basement, and subsequent murder at about 11:20 A.M., I was immediately taken back by the announcement that our witnessing of Oswalds murder was committed by one Ruby, Jack Ruby.

2. When Jack Ruby’s picture was released over the television, I said to my friend in our Shaw Hotel room, “my god, I know that man!”

I know that man, but where do I know him from, and with whom?

3. During the past 8 day’s I have tried to back-track my life in the most recent years and in various cities where I have might have known this man or those to whom he was associated. If my memory serves me right, Jack Ruby was visiting syndicate members in San Diego between the last months of 1961 and early months of 1962. The meeting of the Syndicate Members was at the “Brass Rail,” a bar-restaurant owned by two Hungarian members. It is used as a homosexual bar, much as the New York Syndicate under the former Gallo gang used some dozen homosexual bars as ‘fronts.” Today the Syndicate in New York and Chicago are using Exotic Dance bars, strip-tease bars, harem dancing bars, and the giant hot-dog house as “fronts.”

4. Jack Ruby is known as a “fingerman” in these operations, and not only is it probable for him to have had a hand in stimulating the assassination of President Kennedy by Oswald, but likewise pre-arranged the attitudes for the assassination which was ordered from the East Coast. Oswald was a “sitting duck” to be used for the actual killing of President Kennedy. I sincerely believe that Oswald was to have met his accomplice in the theater, supposedly been highly paid, thence escaped to Mexico & Cuba. If I am right in my deductions, that it was The Syndicate that instigated the thought of the assassination, then Oswald would have been liquidated within a few hours of President Kennedy’s death anyway.

5. I have a very strong feeling that Jack Ruby might well have been the “finger-man” who set up the murder of

Nick deJohn [sic] in San Francisco. You should really confront the above-mentioned to Jack Ruby, it might jar him a bit!

Please know that I deeply regret that so much action was taken against my mail and other outlets while in San Diego 1961, for as I then suggested in my communications, I could have indeed forwarded some very strong evidence against the welfare of our people which eminated [sic] from near the border

I wish you every good luck by the investigations, stressing the most careful analysis and protection to those who might give testimony during the trial.

I likewise suggest that Mr. Robert Kennedy personally take greater precautions for himself and family until such time as he retires as Attorney General.

I prefer not to sign my name, rather just enclosing one of my old cards to acknowledge the sender of this letter. As you know from my past letters, I have very little confidence in the local FBI office maintaining silence regarding my name. please do not acknowledge this letter to them here.

Respectfully Yours

http://www.maryferre...amp;relPageId=2 [emphasis added by T. Graves]

[...]

To a degree the letter seems like a very credible document, but on the other hand, what area of government operations could RFK and Dulles possibly be in a position to have caused problems for anybody?......That is my problem with it, ie the document in question.

Does anybody know what year Nick deJohn was murdered? I believe it was circa 1953-56.......

 

 

I posted this response, which I have recently edited:

 

 

 

Robert,

 

Whoever wrote this letter confused (perhaps intentionally) the gay Brass Rail bar (in Hillcrest, a couple of miles north of downtown San Diego) for the straight, no-longer-existing, downtown San Diego Gold Rail Steak House, which was owned by the most feared Mafia hitman on the West Coast, Frank Bompensiero, and "One Eye" Frank Paul Dragna, son of Los Angles mob boss Jack Dragna (an associate of Johnny Roselli). "Syndicate" members wouldn't have met at the gay Brass Rail up in Hillcrest, they would have met at the mafia-owned Gold Rail Steak House, which was situated across the street from the luxurious U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego.

 

(Speaking of Bompensiero, a couple of "Bomp's"  boys did something to a guy by the name of Cherry who was trying to make a move on the Bomp's San Diego-area jukebox monopoly back in the day.  If I remember correctly, it had something to with a very large cucumber, and took place in one off the rooms at the U.S. Grant Hotel.  It was in an interesting FBI document from the late 1950's, but I can't seem to find it at the moment. Suffice it to say that said cucumber was uhh ... inserted ..  in the U.S. Grant Hotel, and, uhhh.... removed ... several hours later by a ... uhhh... proctologist ... in Los Angeles, after a very, very painful ride indeed.

FWIW, a couple of years ago I knocked on the door of the Brass Rail before it opened one morning (I'm not a patron -- LOL) and asked the manager if it had ever been owned by a couple of Hungarians.

The answer was "No."

 

 

"Bompensiero was proud of the Gold Rail. Actually, if you are to believe the license and the Yellow Pages listing, the “Gold Rail Steak House.” No steak was served. Law said you had to serve food. Bompensiero didn’t serve food."

http://www.sandiegor...check-us-grant/

http://en.wikipedia....ank_Bompensiero

https://en.wikipedia...iki/Jack_Dragna

--Tommy 

 

 

 

 

 

On 8/12/2015 at 1:13 AM, Thomas Graves said:

 

Robert [Howard],

San Francisco mafioso Nick de John was murdered in 1947.

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1947/05/10/page/3/article/former-chicago-hoodlum-slain-on-west-coast

Regarding your other question, Since RFK was Attorney General and therefore J. Edgar Hoover's boss, I would think that he could have told Hoover to be hard on certain people.

PS The coy, story-telling style, the liberal use of quotation marks and hyphens, the exclamation mark, the good vocabulary, the near perfect spelling, the excellent grammar, the proper use of commas, and the generally good punctuation reminds me very much of one Gerry Patrick Hemming.  

I think the letter was an elaborate joke  by Hemming, e.g., the Shaw Hotel was a "Negro" hotel in Harlem (LOL)  -- why even mention that he and his "friend" were staying at the "Shaw Hotel" when he recognized Ruby on television ? (btw, at what point on 11/24/63 could Ruby be seen clearly enough on television to have been recognized by anyone -- during the shooting of Oswald itself - I think not) ; Hemming has the "writer" come across as being possibly gay himself -- and, btw, how else could the "writer" have known about the gay Brass Rail (est. 1960) if he hadn't been there himself "when he was in San Diego in 1961"?  LOL). I think Hemming wrote this letter not only as a joke, but to also to direct RFK's attention away from the CIA and towards the Mafia, and to send RFK on a coupla dem "wild goose chases" as well, trying to figure out what the heck the writer meant when he said that RFK and / or Dulles had messed with his mail in San Diego in 1961, and mentioning "threats to the welfare of our people emanating from near the border" ?

BTW, it's interesting that the "originator" of the document ("CIA") doesn't say where the letter was mailed from.

http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=73129#relPageId=1&tab=page

--Tommy 

More on Frank Bompensiero: http://www.allanrmay.com/Frank_Bompensiero.html

 

Edited January 3, 2017 by Thomas Graves

[Paul Brancato]

Really interesting Tommy. Even though it's somewhat tangential, your speculation that Hemming was the author begs the question at whose instigation? I remember Robert Howard. Did he ever clarify his thoughts on the author, or where he found the letter?

[Thomas Graves]

14 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

Really interesting Tommy. Even though it's somewhat tangential, your speculation that Hemming was the author begs the question at whose instigation? I remember Robert Howard. Did he ever clarify his thoughts on the author, or where he found the letter?

 

Dear Paulie,

Beats da heck outta me.

Just thought I'd throw youse guys a cuppla my obser-vations.  Know whudd-eye mean, jelly bean?

--  Tommy

PS  Tanks for da bump!

 

EDIT:  Hemming was friends with James Jesus Angleton.

 

Edited January 1, 2017 by Thomas Graves

[Thomas Graves]

14 hours ago, Thomas Graves said:

 

Dear Paulie,

Beats da heck outta me.

Just thought I'd throw youse guys a cuppla my obser-vations.  Know whudd-eye mean, jelly bean?

--  Tommy

PS  Tanks for da bump!

 

EDIT:  Hemming was friends with James Jesus Angleton.

 

bumped for Paulie

[Paul Brancato]

So do you suspect Angleton was running Hemming?

[Thomas Graves]

1 hour ago, Paul Brancato said:

So do you suspect Angleton was running Hemming?

Dear Paul,

Either him, or Paul Trejo.

--  Tommy

[Paul Brancato]

Can you direct me to info linking Angleton and Hemming? I can't find it.

[Thomas Graves]

1 hour ago, Paul Brancato said:

Can you direct me to info linking Angleton and Hemming? I can't find it.

Dear Paul,

As far as I know, there is nothing that "links" Hemming to Angleton other than Hemming's oblique statements to A.J.Webberman and Hemming's rants on this forum, iirc.

Let us know what you find.

Do you know how to use Google Search?  It helps to use quotation marks, and to press Ctrl and "F" at the same time to get a little drop down search box once you're in the text of an article.

Good luck!

--  Tommy

Oh yeah.  And maybe to Greg Burnham, too.

Edited January 3, 2017 by Thomas Graves