Edwin Walker, Loran Hall, Gerry Patrick Hemming, Lawrence Howard, Harry Dean

[Ian Kingsbury]

Paul

Was Dulles the instigator or the Washington cover? Walker could not have contained the whole operation surely!.

This must have been under the watchful eye of intel of all sorts hence the cover up.

[Thomas Graves]

[...]

John, here's my take on the timeline. The Walker shooting was on 10 April 1963, but we need to start six months before that.

[...]

(5) On Wednesday 10 April 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald, along with at least one accomplice (according to DPD eye-witness reports) attempted and failed to assassinate ex-General Edwin Walker.

[...]

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Paul,

I wonder if LHO recruited his accomplice(s) or if one (or two) was provided to him?

--Tommy

Edited September 7, 2012 by Thomas Graves

[Paul Trejo]

Paul

Was Dulles the instigator or the Washington cover? Walker could not have contained the whole operation surely!.

This must have been under the watchful eye of intel of all sorts hence the cover up.

Ian, in my opinion Dulles and the CIA were amused observers. Walker and Banister were the instigators -- Walker provided the motivation and the idea, while Banister provided all the means to transform Lee Harvey Oswald into a patsy right there in New Orleans, in the summer of 1963.

Walker and Banister had in common their staunch segregationist politics, their violent Anticommunist reflexes, and their leadership roles in the paramilitary group - which had a secret membership list -- called the MInutemen.

Further, they were both formerly employed by the Government (Banister was an FBI chief, and Walker was a Major General) so they both had enormous experience with the Governmental bureacracy. They knew how to get things done -- but they also made many friends in Government over the decades, and they were able to pull in many favors.

Yet I'm convinced that their most valuable asset was their leadership role in the Minutemen. Young men -- expert sharpshooters -- were raised to be violent Anticommunists, true believers in Authority, and would put their own lives on the line for their country, which they defined in extremist terms. Banister and Walker were for these young men 'great men' and they would obey them. They would also keep their mouths shut under all circumstances.

Compare these assets with the pitiful assets the CIA could come up with -- Mafia hitmen who liked to brag, and who would sell you out for a better price. No, I'm convinced that the CIA sat this one out (at least at first) and watched and waited to see what Walker and Banister could come up with.

Banister was very well-connected, with lots of resources and lots of money donors. Even the CIA gave him money with no strings attached. For example, Banister was very close to many Cuban Exiles -- ferocious Anticommunists who were desperate to take Cuba back at all costs. These were strong allies, but they had a flaw -- they were loyal to Cubans and would only follow Americans to a point.

Add to this the language barrier (which is why Banister found David Ferrie so valuable, since Ferrie was a master of multiple languages).

Most valuable of all, however, was the propaganda genius Ed Butler (INCA) with his sidekick, Carlos Bringuier (DRE), both former supporters of Batista, and still fairly young. Remember that at no time in US history did any street Communist ever receive so much newspaper, radio and TV coverage in a single month than Lee Harvey Oswald did in August of 1963.

Oswald never joined the Communist party. Oswald never hung out with Communists, or attended Communist rallies. Oswald asked the FPCC if he could start a branch office in New Orleans, and the FPCC answered him quickly -- no, no way, not on your life.

Still, Oswald promptly set up a fake FPCC office (at 544 Camp Street) and logged that he was officer over exactly one member -- Alek Hidell, his own alias.

This is not how a real Communist behaves. Then Oswald hired two kids from the unemployment line at $2 an hour (which is $20 an hour in today's money) to distribute FPCC handbills to the public as the cameras rolled on. Hired them! That is not how a real Communist behaves.

More telling, Lee Harvey Oswald wrote to the CPUSA to boast about how he had a street fight with an Anticastro Cuban and was arrested for it -- but that letter was mailed two days before the event actually occurred! There is no better proof that Ed Butler and Carlos Bringuier planned this fake fight for this fake FPCC officer, using INCA camera staff.

And after the newspaper coverage, there was also radio coverage, courtesy the connections of Ed Butler. And after the radio coverage, there was also TV coverage -- also courtesy of Ed Butler.

These, then, were the sorts of resources that Guy Banister had at his disposal -- and he laid these resources at the feet of ex-General Edwin Walker. This is only the tip of the iceberg, IMHO.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited September 8, 2012 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

[...]

John, here's my take on the timeline. The Walker shooting was on 10 April 1963, but we need to start six months before that.

[...]

(5) On Wednesday 10 April 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald, along with at least one accomplice (according to DPD eye-witness reports) attempted and failed to assassinate ex-General Edwin Walker.

[...]

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Paul,

I wonder if LHO recruited his accomplice(s) or if one (or two) was provided to him?

--Tommy

Tommy, I no longer believe that Larrie or Robbie Schmidt were the accomplices of Lee Harvey Oswald, as claimed by Dick Russell in his book, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1992, 2002). Russell ascribes the story to Bradford Angers, whose story (as relayed) is shaky. (For one thing, the 1992 version says that Robbie Schmidt was the accomplice, while the 2002 version says that Larrie Schmidt was the accomplice!) Besides, Bradford Angers didn't meet Larrie Schmidt until 1964.

Our ex-General Edwin Walker once suspected Michael Paine, partly because Michael Paine testified that he had dinner with the Oswalds at his house on that very night. Although Michael Paine strenuously denied any such thing to the Warren Commission, I still wish to keep this possibility open, because I remain dissatisfied with Paine's testimony.

For potential second shooters, I cannot suspect members of Interpen (i.e. Hemming, Hall, Howard) as some have, unless I also suspect (as some do) that Walker himself planned his own shooting! Gerry Patrick Hemming, years ago on this very FORUM, suggested that Walker planned his own shooting -- yet Hemming was unclear about why Walker would do such a thing.

(Such a theory, IMHO, is as wild as claiming that JFK's limo-driver was his actual assassin, because it ignores all empirical context.)

Would I venture to name someone as the second shooter? I'm willing to suspend my guesswork until we can establish more facts.

I do accept that the DPD made a thorough investigation, revealing that local neighborhood witnesses for several days noticed two men snooping around Walker's house when Walker was out of town, shortly before the attack.

(Walker was finishing up his six-week Midnight Ride tour with segregationist preacher, Reverend Billy James Hargis, and returned home on 9 April 1963, to hear a report that two snoopers had sped away from his house just the prior day).

The closest eye-witness to the shooting said two men ran to a car across the alley and sped away (and that a third man simultaneously sauntered to a nearby car and calmly drove away).

If we accept the evidence of Marina Oswald's possessions as well as her testimony, then Lee Harvey Oswald was certainly one of the two shooters. (We still have no proof that Oswald's rifle was used, or that a different rifle was used, since the bullet was too mutilated.)

Who was the other shooter? That question can wait -- because the real consequence of this line of reasoning is that Oswald did not act alone.

The real value of the two-shooter theory is its further proof that the Warren Commission anxiously insisted that Oswald was a loner, precisely because they knew who his accomplices really were, and they would hide Oswald's accomplices at all costs.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited September 9, 2012 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

I think...

I'm contemplating a worksheet with this and the more I do the more complex it seems. There is a lot of extraneous data and it's hard to objectively weigh all within a correct analysis. I'm working on some other sheets that indirectly helps but are still primary. I think things can be seen but this list is not complete neither in events nor persons.

John, I agree with you on one point -- my current timeline is in no way complete.

For one thing, I overlooked the words of Gerry Patrick Hemming, who some years ago on this FORUM said that he visited ex-General Walker a few weeks after the shooting (probably in early May 1963, if not late April). Hemming said he had some men from Interpen with him, as I recall. They smoked cigars and drank beer on Walker's porch into nightfall, as I recall.

Also, we have correspondence from Hemming saying that he had meetings with General Walker as early as February, 1963. February! I need to find out when they first met. I have the impression that Hemming sought funding from Walker for his own Interpen paramilitary raiding party, and got it throughout 1963.

Although Loran Hall had his own raiding band in 1963, I'm unclear when Loran Hall broke away from Interpen to start his own band.

Hemming's 1963 connections with General Walker, Lee Harvey Oswald, Loran Hall and Lawrence Howard are as thick as pecan pie. I would very much like to see an encyclopedia of Hemming's statements (in all their self-contradictory glory) in as close to chronological order as possible.

The main dimension missing from my timeline above is somewhat as follows:

*** On 26 September 1962, before leading thousands of protestors to march against thousands of federal troops at Ole Miss University, ex-General Edwin Walker sent an open hate-mail letter to President JFK. Even on the eve of the Civil Rights protest he was waging that very week, Walker insisted that the real USA problem was Cuba. Cuba was JFK's worst failing, and that the world no longer respects the USA because of JFK's failure in Cuba. (Here's the letter: http://www.pet880.co...Open_Letter.JPG )

** On 21 January 1963, when the Mississippi Grand Jury acquitted General Walker of any wrongdoing in his Ole Miss riots, Walker emerged from the courtroom with a sneer for the Kennedys, and in his press conference warned them (in so many words) that he was now going to pursue true justice through the Cuban Exiles.

** On or about 15 February 1963, Gerry Patrick Hemming met with General Walker, who told Hemming that he is now interested in pursuing relationships with Cuban Exiles in order to further his purposes of increasing political power for himself in the immediate future.

** On or about 15 May 1963, upon the advice of Clay Bertrand, attorney Dean Andrews held a meeting with Lee Harvey Oswald and a pair of (in Andrews' words) "gay Mexicanos" to seek a legal solution for Oswald's dishonorable discharge status with the Marine Corps. Dean Andrews was unclear if the "gay Mexicanos" were truly Mexican or Cuban.

** Were these two Hispanic males who accompanied Lee Harvey Oswald into Dean Andrews' office named Ed Butler and Carlos Bringuier? Or were they named Loran Hall and Lawrence Howard?

In my opinion, Gerry Patrick Hemming spoke so often about this topic, that although he diced and minced his words, the sheer volume of facts that one might accumulate from such a torrent of gab could add significant detail to our knowledge about the relationships between of ex-General Edwin Walker, Loran Hall, Gerry Patrick Hemming, Lawrence Howard and Harry Dean.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited September 9, 2012 by Paul Trejo

[David Boylan]

Paul,

I believe that Hemming got his first intro to Walker via Warren Reynolds in January/February 63. He got Warren Reynolds name from Rouselett in California.

Edited September 8, 2012 by David Boylan

[David Boylan]

^{Some notes I had on Hall.}

^{Background – In January 1963, Hall and Hemming traveled to Dallas from California to meet with various conservatives in order to raise funds for anti-Castro activities. John Rousselot (District Governor of the John Birch Society. See Harry Dean’s account of Rousellot) gave Hemming some names of people to see, most notably Robert Morris. Morris then introduced them to Lester Logue. H and H visited Warren Reynolds who brought them to General Walker’s. Walker said he would throw his organization behind them. A newspaperman did a nice article on them and their anti-Castro efforts. It was due to the publicity from this article that Hall was contacted by and met Nico Crespi and Wiley Yates. Hemming claims that after Hall met all these people in January, he continued to see them all though 1963 behind Hemming’s back. Hall would meet with H.L. Hunt, Robert Morris, Dan Smoot, Wiley Yates, Lester Logue and the unnamed foursome in Logue’s office. (One was possibly Jeb Rose of Rose Trucking)}

^{After leaving Dallas, Hall and Hemming stopped in New Orleans to visit Frank Bartes and Larry Laborde. After leaving NO, Hall left Hemming and continued on to Tampa to visit Santo Trafficante.}

^{Hall went back again to Dallas in Feb/March without Hemming. Burt Mold and John Lechner go to Chicago from LA to visit Paulino Sierra end of February. Mold and Lechner were members of various conservative organizations based in California – Americanism Educational League, board member of the American Committee to Free Cuba, California American Legion and the Americans for Cuban Freedom that Mold and Lechner co-founded in 1961. Richard Nagel had an entry in his notebook “Dr. John Lechner Americanism Educational League.” Members of note of the AEL: Hon. Robert Morris, Vice Admiral TD Ruddock, Rear Adm Julian Wheeler, Brig Gen Walter Shoaff, Adm Chester Ward, Spruille Braden, Walter Knott, Herbert Philbrick, and Harry von Zell.}

^{Board Members of note of the ACFC: John Rousellot, Dr. John Lechner, Kent Courtney, Gen. Sumter Lowrey, JB Mattews, Herbert Philbrick, Matt Cvetic, Jose Norman, and supporter Robert A. Surrey (Walker’s aid de camp)}

^{[Hall’s immunized HSCA testimony pages 60-61]}

^{Mr. Hall. We were wasting our time with the hit and run raids in Cuba…Not only did we have to worry fighting the Cubans but we had to fight the American Government also. So rather than go through all that Logue and myself decided what we would try to do was form a government-in-exile, Cuban government-in-exile, try to get all the groups to come together under one group. In order to do that we had to have someone, some Cuban who would be accepted by all the groups…we tried to do that. We couldn’t get that accomplished. The groups wouldn’t agree to one president…I was there [at the meeting in Lester Logue’s office] mostly because I was you might say the military part of the operation.}

^{Mr. Triplett. At that meeting was a comment made regarding the killing of President Kennedy?}

^{Mr. Hall. Yes, there was.}

^{[Harold Weisberg interviewing Hall. Feb 1968]}

^{Hall: …We had a hell of a deal set up – we were going to take all the, uh, we were going to take [Carlos] Prio Socarras to Guatemala and we were going to invade Cuba from Guatemala into Oriente, set up a 24 hour holding period and ask the United Nations to come in and help us and we going to do this and Prio got…Yeah, and do you know what, the dirty lousy son of a bitch wouldn’t do it. Prio Socarras flat turned me down and I had the money to do it.}

^{Weisberg: Did you have an army?}

^{Hall: You bet.}

^{Hall: The reason I was really disappointed was because, one of Prio Soccares, in fact he was Prio Socaras military attaché,…his name was Emitario Sierra, he was a good friend of mine, in fact [sierra’s] sister, Carmen, tried to help me escape from prison in Cuba in ’59. (This is probably Paulino Sierra. Between the translation from the tape and Hall’s occasionally misremembering names – i.e., he kept calling Bill Seymour “Bill Sizemore.” – my comments)}

^{-----------------------------------------}

^{Prio, Sierra and Pedro Diaz Lanz visited H.L. Hunt in trying to secure funds for JCGE. I'm not sure of the outcome. The money may have been laundered through Union Tank Car with William Browder in charge of the funds.}

[Paul Trejo]

Paul,

I believe that Hemming got his first intro to Walker via Warren Reynolds in January/February 63. He got Warren Reynolds name from Rousselot in California.

David, that is most interesting -- I hope you can verify your dates. From the notes that you posted (after the above post), your description sounds similar to a meeting that Loran Hall described to Jim Garrison -- and Garrison was so sloppy that he didn't firmly date this event.

Please share your sources for the date in your notes.

The earliest letter of fund-raising that I have from Gerry Hemming to ex-General Walker is dated 28 June 1963. I have rumors of earlier dates, but no documents.

Also, in the interview with Jim Garrison, Loran Hall was speaking in the context of June, 1963, in a meeting he had with Lester Logue and three wealthy businessmen, when the topic of a plan to kill JFK was mentioned. In that context, Garrison asked about General Walker, and Loran Hall gave the basic story you shared in your notes.

Here is some of the text from that 8 May 1968 Hall/Garrison interview. (Note that Loran Hall called Gerry Patrick Hemming, 'Patrick.' Also, 'JG' stands for 'Jim Garrison and his staff,' while 'LH' stands for 'Loran Hall.')

--------- BEGIN Transcript excerpt of 8 May 1968 -----

...

JG: How about GENERAL WALKER, you said you knew him?

LH: I met him once. REYNOLDS...I'm positive that's who it was, the one that got hit in the head, shot in the head, whatever it was...

JG: WARREN REYNOLDS.

LH: I think that's who it was. I was in Dallas, Texas, and PATRICK and myself was there and the first place we went the day after we got there was MORRIS, he's an attorney and he's also in the Adolfo Building.

JG: ROBERT MORRIS.

LH: We were in his office.

JG: Who took you to ROBERT MORRIS'?

LH: PATRICK. PATRICK knew right where to go. In fact he called him on the phone and we went right up there. And he says something about, well, would you like to meet GENERAL WALKER, or something like this, and PATRICK said yes, this is one of the fellows we want to see. So he says, let me call this fellow here because he's a friend of WALKER's. So he calls him and I do know that he was a used car salesman and he made the appointment for us to go out there.

JG: You went out to JOHHNY REYNOLDS' used car lot?

LH: No, he met us, as I recall; I remember that we met him but I'll be goddam if I can remember where we met him, because I can remember he even talked about, "I'm getting supplies and sending them down to Miami. Now there isn't much stuff that I can get, but I can get, like, food stuff..."

JG: Who said this?

LH: This used car salesman, WARREN REYNOLDS. And he says, "I'm getting like used clothes and food and medical supplies and I'm sending them to Miami. This is the address that I'm sending them to." And he gave it to PATRICK and I don't know who he was sending the stuff to, but anyway he was sending that. And he said that he could get us in with GENERAL WALKER so he led us there. 'BOATS' WELCH and his wife, and PATRICK and myself all drove up there in, I think it was my car, and we followed REYNOLDS to WALKER's house and then we all went into WALKER's house, and then sat down in the room, and PATRICK was telling him about his group down there in 'No Name Key,' and WALKER said something about the fact that, "I could have had a command in Viet Nam if I had wanted it because I could have had the Special Forces deal over there." He then talked about some woman over in Europe that was the head of a newspaper or some goddam thing who was the one that really screwed him up over there; that she was a Communist and that she did everything she could to ruin GENERAL WALKER. This is another avenue that BILLINGS told me not to mention, the fact about REYNOLDS. I'm positive that's who it was.

...

------ END Transcript excerpt of 8 May 1968 -----

Everything rings true about this interview, IMHO, except that Loran Hall claimed that this was the one and only time he ever met General Walker. I believe that part was a lie.

The fact that so many people -- from Michael Paine to Loran Hall -- persisted in lying about General Walker, suggests to me that they were terrified of the Minutemen who were still loyal to General Walker.

But to move from the current point, David, we must try to date this one, single, admitted meeting between Loran Hall and General Walker. Jim Garrison failed to date it. I myself had the vague impression that it occurred shortly after Loran Hall and Bill Seymour were released from a Dallas prison in September, 1963, because it was, after all, Robert Morris who gave $5,000 to bail them out. But the dating is very fuzzy. I hope you can help me out here.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited September 9, 2012 by Paul Trejo

[David Boylan]

Paul,

I'll have to dig through my files but this was a Gerry Hemming doc. He did have a much better memory than Hall.This was Hall's first trip. The second was indeed in June. Hemming was complaining because Hall went behind his back to later meet his Hemming's contacts. I thought this date was noteworthy because it mirrored the Sierra initiative that also came out of California. This was the visit of Burt Mold and John Lechner to Chicago where if memory serves, they met with Cesar Blanco.

My notes on Lechner:

Lechner was an old time anti-communist. He was Executive Director of the Americanism Educational League, which was an arm of the California American Legion and the JBS. He was also very active in the American Committee to Free Cuba. He and Mold formed their own organization called Americans for Cuban Freedom. The American Committee to Free Cuba is a very interesting org that had a very interesting membership. The ACFC had many right wing extremists – California Rangers, Christian Defense League, etc. Some names of note: Robert A. Surrey, Gen. Walker’s right hand man, Kent Courtney, Hon. John Rousselot, Steve Foote, Harry Von Zell, and Jose Norman. Norman gave Loran Hall the money to get Hemming’s rifle out of hock. The check was from the ACFC. Hall knew many of these people and would give inspirational fund raising talks before many of these people. The HSCA was very interested in this group.

-----------------

[Paul Trejo]

Paul,

I'll have to dig through my files but this was a Gerry Hemming doc. He did have a much better memory than Hall.This was Hall's first trip. The second was indeed in June. Hemming was complaining because Hall went behind his back to later meet his Hemming's contacts. I thought this date was noteworthy because it mirrored the Sierra initiative that also came out of California. This was the visit of Burt Mold and John Lechner to Chicago where if memory serves, they met with Cesar Blanco.

My notes on Lechner:

Lechner was an old time anti-communist. He was Executive Director of the Americanism Educational League, which was an arm of the California American Legion and the JBS. He was also very active in the American Committee to Free Cuba. He and Mold formed their own organization called Americans for Cuban Freedom. The American Committee to Free Cuba is a very interesting org that had a very interesting membership. The ACFC had many right wing extremists – California Rangers, Christian Defense League, etc. Some names of note: Robert A. Surrey, Gen. Walker’s right hand man, Kent Courtney, Hon. John Rousselot, Steve Foote, Harry Von Zell, and Jose Norman. Norman gave Loran Hall the money to get Hemming’s rifle out of hock. The check was from the ACFC. Hall knew many of these people and would give inspirational fund raising talks before many of these people. The HSCA was very interested in this group.

-----------------

David, I remember a Gerry Hemming doc in which he admitted that he and some Interpen guys (I don't remember who) visited General Walker at Walker's home "shortly after the 10 April 1963 shooting." He didn't have a firm date, but he said it was weeks -- "perhaps late April or early May."

The impression he gave in his description -- they sat out on Walker's back porch smoking and drinking until nightfall -- suggested a long-term relationship already by May, 1963.

Hemming also said in that doc that he was puzzled why Walker was so calm on his porch since he was only 50 yards or so from the sniper's nest, and it was only a few weeks prior that the sniper tried to kill him. That's when it occurred to Hemming that Walker might have staged the entire shooting affair, since Walker seemed too calm and relaxed on that porch.

(It didn't occur to Hemming that some pretty effective warriors were also on that same porch, and that the sniper was a coward who shot in the dark and then ran like hell, and that Walker was well aware of these facts.)

I vaguely recall that the May visit also included Loran Hall -- and if I'm right, then the June visit would have been his third visit. (But if that's true, then actually there could have been a few extra visits as well.)

It does sound just like Loran Hall to go behind Hemming's back and try to get money from Hemming's contacts for his own Raider band.

Finally, as for your notes on Lechner -- the membership of the ACFC read like a Who's Who of the ultra-right in 1963. Robert Surrey was also a publisher for the American Nazi Party. Kent Courtney once advocated General Edwin Walker for US President (and he also wrote the CSA Voting Index that caused the downfall of General Walker from his command over the 24th Infantry Division in Augsburg, Germany in 1961). John Rousselot was the California Congressman for the San Gabriel Valley (my home town). All these men were members and leaders in the John Birch Society.

Loran Hall told Jim Garrison that he gave fund-raising speeches to many John Birch Society cells, raising money for raids on Cuba -- although he had to give all the receipts to John Rousselot before he exracted his small fee.

Your notation on Jose Norman is interesting. I'll look up Steve Foote and Harry Von Zell separately.

The HCSA botched the investigation of Sylvia Odio and Loran Hall just as badly as the Warren Commission and Jim Garrison did. I'm convinced Loran Hall knew ten times more than he ever shared. His alleged "faulty memory" was the sound of his dicing, mincing and censoring his memoirs.

I'm keen to verify the date of Gerry Patrick Hemming and Loran Hall's first meeting with ex-General Edwin A. Walker. I myself can't find that reference anywhere. I hope you can find it, David.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited September 10, 2012 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

Paul,

I wonder if LHO recruited his accomplice(s) or if one (or two) was provided to him?

--Tommy

Tommy, I'm moved to return to your intriguing question. Let's take each option one-at-a-time.

Option #1: If LHO recruited his accomplices:

If LHO recruited his accomplices it would not have been like his August recruitment of paid laborers to pass out FPCC leaflets on Canal Street in New Orleans. In that scenario, LHO simply went to the unemployment office and offered boys in the line $2 an hour to pass out leaflets. (I believe minimum wage in 1963 was 85 cents an hour). Two boys quickly jumped at the chance.

But shooting to kill is not that sort of paid labor. There are only four sorts of criminals who would stoop to assassination in the USA: (i) a local political madman; (ii) a paid Mafia hitman; (iii) a paid ex-military rogue turned hitman; and (iv) a foreigner with a political agenda.

So, if LHO recruited his own accomplices, he had four pools of criminals to choose from. The problem with (ii) and (iii) is that they charge a lot of money -- and LHO had maybe a few spare bucks at any given time. So even if LHO did hang out with the Mafia or ex-military rogues, he most likely couldn't afford their fees.

That leaves (i) and (iv). It seems to me that (iv) is doubtful because a foreigner with a political agenda would probably target a politician in power, and not a has-been like ex-General Edwin Walker. That leaves (i).

LHO was a political madman who kept switching sides; left, right, left, right. Who did he know who was angry enough at General Walker to want to kill him? In my theory, George De Mohrenshildt, by his own admission, called General Walker, "General Fokker" and made LHO laugh. Also, Volkmar Schmidt tried to transfer LHO's anger over the Bay of Pigs to General Walker. Also, Michael Paine was also politically against General Walker. But were any of these guys also shooters?

I think George De Mohrenschildt was handy with fire arms -- and even his wife Jeanne like to skeet shoot. Yet they were both worried that LHO was the shooter, and after they learned confirmation that LHO was indeed Walker's shooter, they never saw the Oswald's again. So I think De Mohrenschildt was too money-oriented in those days to bother with politics.

That leaves Volkmar Schmidt and Michael Paine. It is not impossible that they accompanied LHO on his mission -- in which case LHO would not so much have recruited them, but simply agreed over a soda that they would go ahead and do this thing.

BTW, by my reading, Robbie Schmidt did not arrive in Dallas until May 1963, so Bradford P. Angers' suspicion of Robbie Schmidt is evidently mistaken. Also, William McDuff passed a lie-detector test absolving him of shooting at Walker. I think he's clear.

Finally, Robert Allen Surrey and other neighbors saw two men snooping around Walker's house one week and then one day before the shooting. We have Marina's possessions to prove that Lee Harvey Oswald took photographs of Walker's house shortly before the shooting. So it is likely that Oswald was one of the snoopers -- and that the other snooper was LHO's accomplice. They were definitely in an automobile, and they were crafty enough to remove the license plates before they snooped.

Option #2. If LHO's accomplices were assigned to him.

If LHO's accomplices were assigned to him, our first question must be: WHO was in a position to assign shooters to accompany Lee Harvey Oswald in shooting at ex-General Edwin Walker on 10 April 1963?

This questions breaks apart into so many fragments that it is impossible to work with it. Some of the names that others have proposed in the past were, Robert Kennedy and the State Department, the Secret Service, the CIA, the Communist Party USA, the USSR, the FPCC, the Civil Rights leaders and so on -- in other words -- a hodgepodge mess of guesswork.

That is, no progress can be made on Option #2 unless the bosses of LHO are properly named with proper evidence. It is highly doubtful, IMHO, that any US Government agency was Oswald's boss (although ex-General Walker himself believed that the shooting was a plot by RFK). Nor would the CIA care two bits about General Walker. I also doubt that the Communist Party or USSR would bother with such a low-level target who had already made a fool of himself at Ole Miss, and was a social pariah in respectable circles.

So, unless somebody gives me a reason to count some group as a potential boss of LHO, and also a good reason that they wanted this resigned US General dead, then I find no merit in Option #2.

Therefore, I am inclined to vote for Option #1, although I still seek more data.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

[Mark Knight]

Paul, I'm kinda/sorta with you on Option 1...except...I'm not sure that Oswald's TRUE allegiance really flip-flopped from left to right and back and forth as much as we're "expected" to believe it did. I prefer to think of Oswald as a political chameleon, not so much to camouflage his true leanings as much as to actually make him "stand out" among those around him. When he met Bringuier, for example, he played the anti-Castro role; next day, he was passing out pro-Castro leaflets. DID HIS BELIEFS CHANGE OVERNIGHT?

I think not.

Instead, I think Oswald was simply following orders from SOMEONE...no matter how silly or stupid he personally thought those orders were. Once we figure out who that SOMEONE was, we can start unraveling the ball of twine that is this fellow Oswald, and how he TRULY fits into the puzzle that is the JFK assassination.

Your mileage may vary; carry on.

[Paul Trejo]

Paul, I'm kinda/sorta with you on Option 1...except...I'm not sure that Oswald's TRUE allegiance really flip-flopped from left to right and back and forth as much as we're "expected" to believe it did. I prefer to think of Oswald as a political chameleon, not so much to camouflage his true leanings as much as to actually make him "stand out" among those around him. When he met Bringuier, for example, he played the anti-Castro role; next day, he was passing out pro-Castro leaflets. DID HIS BELIEFS CHANGE OVERNIGHT?

I think not.

Instead, I think Oswald was simply following orders from SOMEONE...no matter how silly or stupid he personally thought those orders were. Once we figure out who that SOMEONE was, we can start unraveling the ball of twine that is this fellow Oswald, and how he TRULY fits into the puzzle that is the JFK assassination.

Your mileage may vary; carry on.

Mark, the question of the Canal Street episode sheds light on the question of Oswald's autonomy or dependence.

I get the impression that Oswald was fairly easy to manipulate -- he was a young man, he grew up without a father, he joined the Marines because his older brother did, and he was passed by in many ways by the educational system. Probably the Texas public school system did not think of Lee Harvey Oswald as a boy who could master the Russian language by the age of 19. They probably thought of him as a boy with poor grammar and poor spelling (which he also was).

The Marines turned out to be a boon for young Oswald, and they taught him Russian and drafted him into some intelligence community - probably the ONI. This would have gone to the young man's head. His ego must have mushroomed at this point, because he confronted a young Gerry Patrick Hemming there at the Atsugi airforce base and boasted that he knew all about Hemming's background and mission! Out of the clear blue sky!

Hemming hated Oswald after that -- it was clear that somebody had briefed Oswald, but it was also clear that Oswald was a braggart, and that he loved to show off and to 'punk' people. Hemming also learned something important about Oswald at that point -- Oswald could not be trusted to keep his mouth shut. So Oswald's career as an intelligence operative was stunted at birth.

As far as Oswald's politics - on the one hand we get the impression that he was a devout Marine - he hung out with Marines and he took their side in just about everything, so he had a familiy for life, if he wanted it. For example, both George De Mohrenschildt and Volkmar Schmidt bemoaned that Lee Harvey Oswald in late 1962 and early 1963 could not keep quiet about JFK's failure at the Bay of Pigs. This was typical verbiage from a typical US Marine of that time.

In the same way, when Loran Hall called Sylvia Odio in late 1963, he told her that Lee Harvey Oswald complained that the Cubans "didn't have any guts because they should have killed JFK after the JFK's failure at the Bay of Pigs." We find the same theme repeated -- so we have a confirmation that this right-wing attitude was a part of Oswald's personal politics.

However -- at the same time we can recall stories about Oswald sympathy for American blacks. Seeing himself as the underdog -- the orphan -- he also sympathized with the perennial American underdog, the American blacks. Oswald would sit at the back of the bus with black people, and he would hang out with black strangers in public, and would generally show that he was "for" blacks and "against" white segregation. So we have a confirmation that this left-wing attitude was also part of Oswald's personal politics.

So Oswald was a complex of political positions -- he did not merely flip-flop on one single issue, but he was complex for 1963.

Therefore, knowing that Oswald was a moral individualist, who was sometimes a fierce rightist and sometimes a fierce leftist (but always within the realm of the normal, and so far showed nothing radical or violent) we can talk about the Canal Street episode.

It seems obvious to me that the entire Canal Street episode was outside of Oswald's control. He did not call the shots. The scene was set for three weeks in August to receive (i) newspaper coverage; (ii) radio coverage; and (iii) television coverage. Oswald had no pull to make this happen on his own.

Whoever made this happen would turn out to be his handlers. Can we identify these people? Yes, we certainly can.

The two main people who made (i), (ii) and (iii) happen for Lee Harvey Oswald were: (1) Ed Butler; and (2) Carlos Bringuier. Carlos is famous because his face and voice were also featured in (i) and (iii). He stood alongside LHO on television in his most visible role. In New Orleans, Carlos was frequently in the company of Guy Banister at 544 Camp Street, where his Cuban raiding group, DRE, also had liaison offices.

Ed Butler was less visible, but equally present, yet at a higher level. Ed Butler was the leading officer of INCA (Information Council of the Americas) which was a giant media outlet serving USA propaganda to Latin America and especially Cuba. Butler was dedicated to Anticommunist propaganda toward Cuba. Naturally he worked closely with the CIA, which partially funded INCA, and Butler received additional funding from a New Orleans businessman named Clay Shaw.

In New Orleans there was a right-wing radio-talk show host (a fledgling Rush Limbaugh) named Bill Stuckey who conducted one of his many WDSU radio shows, Latin Listening Post, with the advice of Ed Butler. As an expert on Cuba and Latin America, Ed Butler often advised Bill Stuckey about which issues were hot and which speakers were vital for any given week.

On 17 August 1963, on Ed Butler's advice, Bill Stuckey invited Lee Harvey Oswald to advertise his alleged FPCC chapter in New Orleans, and then to return four days later to debate two people on a television broadcast -- the two people that Oswald would debate were Ed Butler and Carlos Bringuier.

My point of this introduction is that the entire scenario (i), (ii) and (iii) were planned days ahead of time. It was all a show for the public, and it was planned what each of the parties was going to say. It was probably rehearsed many times. (It was no accident that LHO, who had never appeared on radio or TV before, seemed so cool and calm.)

The fight with Carlos Bringuier on Canal Street was planned, rehearsed and staged for the newspapers -- every bit of it. We have absolute proof of this fact because we have a letter from LHO to the FPCC in which LHO admits that he had a fight with a Cuban Exile on Canal Street while defending the honor of the FPCC. The trouble is, that letter was sent to the FPCC four days before the event actually happened. Therefore, it was all planned.

And since the newspaper article was planned, we are justified in recognizing that the radio show and the TV show were similarly planned down to the last word. The hard evidence for their planning is that they all had generally the exact same message -- that the FPCC was a Communist organization, and that Lee Harvey Oswald was a leading officer in the FPCC, with his own chapter in New Orleans.

That was the propaganda message that INCA wanted to broadcast to Latin America, and to Cuba in particular.

Why? It is obvious if we know the politics of the day. First, the FPCC told Oswald that he was not permitted, under any circumstances, to set up an FPCC chapter in New Orleans. They had rules about chapters, and Oswald did not conform to those rules. Oswald went ahead and started it anyway. Yet Oswald had no members, except himself and his alias, Alek Hidell. Therefore, this was a completely bogus FPCC chapter. It was a trick.

But to make it appear real, and to make it appear newsworthy, Ed Butler (and probably Clay Shaw and Guy Banister) along with Carlos Bringuier planned and rehearsed a fist fight on Canal Street (directly in front of Clay Shaw's Trade Mart building) and staged it on 5 August 1963.

Then, with Ed Butler's management, this was parlayed into a radio show, in which Oswald promoted the FPCC (but refused to tell how many members he had in the chapter). Finally, Ed Butler and Carlos Bringuier all appeared on TV together on 17 August 1963 with essentially the same message.

Again, why? Because it was common knowledge at that time that officers of the FPCC could get free passage into Cuba from Mexico City, without any delays!

If INCA could broadcast all this flurry of news about Lee Harvey Oswald, the heroic defender of the FPCC with his own FPCC chapter in New Orleans, then this increased the chances of Lee Harvey Oswald to sneak into Cuba through Mexico City as a double-agent!

If LHO had only tried to get into Cuba through Mexico City on his own, then we woud have to agree with the majority who believe that Oswald simply wanted to escape behind the iron curtain again. But because of this series of charades in August, and because of the INCA involvement in the charades, and because Marina Oswald testified that LHO took all of the news clippings about these events with him to Mexico as his "credentials", then we can easily see who Oswald's handlers were.

I think we probably agree on the scenario so far, Mark. Am I correct?

Here is where my theory begins to diverge from the majority:

Seeing his New Orleans handlers clearly, we can now interpret the Mexico City episode more clearly -- Oswald wanted to sneak into Cuba in order to carry out the instructions of his New Orleans handlers -- i.e. to assassinate Fidel Castro. He hoped that being an "officer" of the FPCC would get him an instant entry into Cuba. His reward for a successful mission would have been a huge cash award and a parade and possibly a nomination for President of the USA -- or so LHO believed.

Next, my theory continues with an even sharper disagreement with the majority. The majority seem to believe that if Butler, Bringuier, Shaw, Banister (and his cohort Ferrie) were managing Lee Harvey Oswald in the summer of 1963, then they must have been handling him earlier than that. But that is where I sharply disagree.

Instead, I believe that their handling of Oswald began strictly with his move into New Orleans around 24 April 1963.

So, before that time, who was Oswald's handler? I believe that George De Mohrenschildt was Oswald's handler in Texas, and that George De Mohrenschildt made a big mess of that handling. Instead of controlling this young, loose-canon, George De Mohrenshildt, Volkmar Schmidt and Michael Paine all worked together to pressure Lee Harvey Oswald to try to murder ex-General Edwin A. Walker on 10 April 1963.

I can't be certain that their role was deliberate -- these were generally amateurs. I believe De Mohrenshildt, Schmidt and Paine hated ex-General Walker, but not enough to risk the consequences of assassination. But they projected these ideas of hate onto the impressionable Lee Harvey Oswald (who was fairly easily impressed, and who often tried to impress others).

When Oswald tried to assassinate General Walker, that was when George and Jeanne De Mohrenshildt fled the country, never to return until they were subpoenaed by the Warren Commission.

Oswald had an accomplice on 10 April 1963. Michael Paine stands out, in my opinion, as the most suspicious of the three. But I need more facts.

In short -- the 'handlers' of Texas and the 'handlers' of New Orleans were completely different sets of people and politics. Lee Oswald was pushed and pulled any way the wind happened to blow.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

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Edited November 23, 2012 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

I want to add a note about Lee Harvey Oswald and his fake fight on Canal Street in New Orelans with Carlos Bringuier on 5 August 1963.

From all the data I posted above, there is no clear linkage with ex-General Edwin Walker, whom I consistently place at the center of this particular JFK conspiracy.

How can I link New Orleans and Dallas for this particular event on this particular date? Simple. I evoke the Jack Martin film.

The Jack Martin film is a home movie taken by a young man named John Martin, who was a soldier in the 24th Infantry Division in Augsburg, Germany in 1960, under Major General Edwin A. Walker. John Martin worshipped the ground that Walker walked on, and he particularly appreciated the Pro-Blue training program which was rich in John Birch Society literature. John Martin was very disturbed when JFK relieved General Walker from his command over the 24th Infantry Division in Germany.

After John Martin was honorably discharged (presumably) from the Army in 1962 he joined the Minutemen in his home state of Minnesota. On 11 April 1963 he read in the newspapers that ex-General Walker had been the victim of an assassination attempt at his home in Dallas on 10 April 1963. John Martin flew in a commercial airplane from his home in Minnesota to Dallas (as his home movie shows) to visit ex-General Walker, and while he was there John Martin took a home movie of the bullet holes in Walker's window sill and walls.

So far, this is all innocent. But the shocker comes as the home movie goes forward. Suddenly the film flips to New Orleans, sight-seeing in a park about a block from Canal Street. Because of noise and commotion on Canal Street, the home movie maker runs over to the scene of the commotion, and there is Lee Harvey Oswald fighting with Carlos Bringuier, and then policemen come to break up the fight, and they drive the fighters away to the DPD station.

For a melodramtic finish, the home movie films the sky, then the tops of buildings on Canal Street, then street level people, then the sidewalk, and finally stops at one of Lee Harvey Oswald's FPCC flyers lying in the gutter.

Now -- in my opinion it is in no way accidental that this single home movie marks a material connection between ex-General Edwin Walker's shot-up home and Lee Harvey Oswald handing out FPCC flyers in New Orleans; and it links both events with a home-movie-making Minuteman.

The connection -- in my theory -- seems obvious. While in Dallas, John Martin learned something that Edwin Walker learned from the FBI on Easter Sunday, 14 April 1963, namely, the Lee Harvey Oswald was a suspect in his 10 April 1963 shooting. (The FBI heard it from Mrs. Voshinin who had heard it from George De Mohrenshildt himself.)

In my theory, on that Easter Sunday, ex-General Edwin Walker began procedures in motion to exact revenge on Lee Harvey Oswald. That revenge involved many other members of the Minutemen, including Guy Banister. Banister was closely connected to the Cuban Exiles in New Orleans, including Ed Butler and Carlos Bringuier. The Minutemen in general, and Guy Banister in particular, along with Cuban Exile militants, organized the 'sheep-dip' of Lee Harvey Oswald.

(Probably Oswald was told that he was on a secret government mission to sneak into Cuba for a mission that would make him rich and famous -- a hero with a parade and perhaps even a shot at the Presidency. Oswald bought it and played along with every move. Yet the 'sheep-dip' involved mainly portraying Oswald as a Communist.)

So we have two proofs that the fight between Oswald and Carlos Bringuier (on 5 August 1963 on Canal Street) was a fake fight -- a staged play act. First, we have Oswald's memo about the fight to the FPCC four days earlier than the fight had actually occurred. Secondly we have John Martin on hand to film the event -- using the very same home movie film that he used to film the bullet holes in ex-General Walker's home from the 10 April 1963 shooting.

I think it is obvious that Oswald was ignorant about John Martin -- it was the planners of the entire sheep-dipping affair that told John Martin about the staged fight for 5 August 1963. And because ex-General Edwin Walker is the only person we can connect with John Martin, we have further evidence that Walker was an integral part of the New Orleans sheep-dipping of Lee Harvey Oswald.

John Martin's most likely source regarding the time and place of the planned Oswald/Bringuier arrest was obviously ex-General Walker. Walker probably instructed John Martin to film the bullet holes in his house, and then gave the young man instructions to be in New Orleans on the morning of 5 August 1963, near Canal Street, and film the arrest. Walker could only have this information if he was in close communication with the players in New Orleans.

The resulting home movie would connect Oswald with the Walker shooting at the FPCC -- and thus make it clear that a Communist was the one who shot at Walker. It was to be a propaganda film. This film would be used to convince others -- and to assuage Walker's conscience -- that Oswald deserved to be punished severely.

If my reconstruction is correct, then this proves that ex-General Walker was part of the planning process to stage a fight between Oswald and Bringuier as part of a larger 'sheep-dip' program. (Clay Shaw was also involved, evidently, because the fight occurred directly in front of Clay Shaw's business establishment, and the money that Oswald used to hire leafleters likely came from Shaw, because Oswald had been unemployed for a solid month by this time. I favor Jim Garrison's linkage of Shaw and Oswald.)

The Jack Martin film is a material connection between the New Orleans Minutemen, the Dallas Minutemen and the Minnesota Minutemen.

What further role Jack Martin might have played in the JFK assassination I don't know at present. But I feel certain, just by the very existence of the Jack Martin film, that Walker was deeply connected with the New Orleans 'sheep-dip' operation of Lee Harvey Oswald by the Cuban Exile community and its rightist supporters.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

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Edited November 23, 2012 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

To the lineup of ex-General Edwin Walker, Loran Hall, Gerry Patrick Hemming, Lawrence Howard and Harry Dean we should also add Sylvia Odio, Mrs. Connell, Sarita Odio and Nico Crespi.

The fact that Mrs. Connell's report to the FBI on 29 November 1963 (just 7 days after the JFK assassination) placed Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas making speeches to right-wing Cuban Exiles, corresponds with Loran Hall's report that he met Nico Crespi in Dallas who was on his way to hear Oswald speak. We can conclude from this that Oswald gave rightist speeches in Dallas.

Also, the fact that Mrs. Connell's report also said that "somebody" in New Orleans told Sylvia Odio's "friend" to avoid Lee Harvey Oswald because he was a "double agent", also corresponds with Loran Hall's report that Nico Crespi said he would "heckle" Oswald at this speech. Crespi, an ardent right-winger, would logically heckle any speaker that he believed was a "double agent".

To this equation we must finally add Mrs. Connell's observation that ex-General Edwin Walker also made speeches in Dallas to right-wing Cuban Exiles (as did the elusive Colonel Castorr).

Here we have a cluster of facts that involve ex-General Edwin Walker, Loran Hall, Sylvia Odio and Lee Harvey Oswald.

We may note that Loran Hall's so-called war name was "Leopoldo", and that Harry Dean says that approximately mid-September 1963, he attended a meeting with Walker, Loran Hall, Lawrence Howard, Guy Gabaldon and Congressman John Rousselot in which Lee Harvey Oswald was discussed as a Communist whom they were going to transform into the patsy for their plot against JFK.

Whether they actually carried out this threat or not -- remains to be seen. There were plenty of wild threats aginst JFK among radical right-wingers. However, of all the plots in circulation against JFK, only the plot that used Lee Harvey Oswald would eventually succeed in the JFK assassination. In this fact we can feel more assured and on more solid ground.

So, ex-General Walker's trail leads us back to Dallas, and to Gerry Patrick Hemming and his wild bunch. Fortunately for researchers, after Loran Hall and Lawrence Howard left that meeting with Harry Dean and the others, and went on the road with Lee Harvey Oswald, they stopped for a half-hour at the home of Sylvia Odio on Wednesday 25 September 1963.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

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Edited November 23, 2012 by Paul Trejo