The Denton Connections

[William Kelly]

JFKCountercoup2: The Denton, Texas Connections

By scampbell

Dentoning@gmail.com

January 24, 2013 |

Denton is a sum of all it’s parts and a sum of it’s history. I’m not great at math, but I think the summation has turned out alright. A city like ours is what it is because of a plethora of historic building blocks that form it’s foundation, it’s walls and it’s being. We’ll look at many of those blocks as this blog moves forward, but one of those historic happenings has to do mainly with Denton’s proximity to Dallas and to the events of November 22, 1963.

I’m not going to say that anyone alive on that date remembers exactly where they were when they heard the news that President John Kennedy had been shot just 40 miles away, or that America’s innocence died that day. It may have, but I’m not going to say it, because it has been said so much that it has become clichè. You’re welcome. What a lot of people don’t know are the many Denton ties to the assassination.

Probably the one that people here DO know is that the brother of beloved DISD Coach, Bill Carrico, was the first physician to attend the dying President at Parkland Hospital.

From what I heard long ago from the Carricos, their brother/uncle didn’t like to talk about the experience much, but his testimony regarding JFK’s wounds did not agree with the Warren Commission’s claim that all shots came from the rear.

Another Denton physician present that day was Dr. Bill Midgett. I have always been interested with the events of the assassination and was astonished to find out from the good doctor’s daughter, Diane, that he had been at Parkland that day. I have known the Midgetts since I was in high school, but didn’t hear about this until a couple of years ago. I subsequently had the opportunity to discuss Dr. Midgett’s experience with him and was fascinated to hear his story.

In 1963, Dr. Midgett was an OB/GYN resident at Parkland Hospital. On the day JFK was shot, Dr. Midgett was in a lounge for residents, when around 12:40 pm, someone from the hospital burst through the doors and yelled for him and another resident to immediately go to the ambulance bay. Dr. Midgett said that there was normally no rush to get to the bay because most mothers-to-be did not come in ready to give birth as soon as they got there. Because of this, Dr. Midgett and his associate sauntered down the hall with no sense of urgency. It was when he threw open the doors to the outside that his world temporarily turned upside down. In front of Dr. Midgett sat the convertible Presidential limousine and more men with guns than he had ever seen in one place. He ran to the side of the limo where the President was slumped in his wife’s lap. His friend ran to the other side. Dr. Midgett helped remove JFK from the limo and place him on a stretcher, his friend helped Jackie out of the limo and followed the President inside. Once the group was in Trauma Room One, Dr. Carrico took over the initial, yet futile, care of the dying President.

As we know, JFK died at 1pm that day and the news flashed around the world. A friend of mine, Metroplex newsman Bill Mercer, co-wrote a book entitled When The News Went Live a few years ago about the event and how it forever changed the way we get our news. On November 22, 1963, a man named Robert, was having lunch at Jay’s Grill on Ft. Worth Dr. in Denton. As Robert left the restaurant, his car radio informed him that the President had been killed. He drove to his office at Acme Brick and an hour or so later learned that his brother, Lee Harvey Oswald, had been arrested in Oak Cliff for the murder of a Dallas Police officer and was a suspect in the assassination of the President.

I told you at the beginning of this blog, that I’d had many strange life experiences … ………at the time of the assassination, Robert Oswald lived at 1009 Sierra, just off of Sherman Dr. in northeast Denton. My family lived nearby on Heather Lane and Robert’s daughter, Cathy, was in my first grade class at Woodrow Wilson. As I mentioned above (or not), I remember that day well. I vaguely remember Cathy, but the main thing I remember about her is that she never came back to class after that day. Mr. Spratt, the principal at Woodrow Wilson came over the speaker and told us what had happened, but none of us knew that Cathy’s uncle would go down as one of history’s vilest villans. I still have a recipe book put together by the mothers of our class with a recipe from “Mrs Robert Oswald”.

The Oswalds moved to Wichita Falls in 1964 and still live there today. In the very early 1980s, I worked for FEMA and worked in Wichita Falls after a flood there. My job at the time was to interview people affected by the flood and direct them to the government and private agencies which could provide assistance. I had developed a routine in which I asked everyone I interviewed for their driver’s license in order to get the neccessary information correctly and quickly. One day I was at my desk when a man sat down across the desk from me and said he’d had some damage to his house and wanted to see what was available. I glanced up at him, introduced myself and asked for his driver’s license. I began filling out paperwork (pre-computers) while the man pulled out his license. When I glanced at the license, I was amazed to see that it said “Robert Lee Oswald” and had a very familiar picture on it. I have read numerous books about the assassination and knew what Mr. Oswald looked like. I wanted to talk to him about his brother and tell him that I had known his daughter years before, but I was a Federal employee and I decided not to invade his privacy ………….though I really wanted to.

Just a little trivia there, but part of Denton’s history. I have personally had many encounters with others involved in one way or another with the assassination, but those don’t really have any roots to Denton other than my fascination with the story. (and just for the record, I don’t think Oswald fired a shot that day. I think he was exactly what he claimed to be……..a patsy.) Talk amongst yourselves…………

Enjoy Denton and enjoy life!!!!

[William Kelly]

JFKCountercoup2: The Denton Informant and Threat

Denton is also known as a college town as the home of North Texas University, where Jim Marrs matriculated, as well as some students who were also members of the John Birch Society and Minutemen, students who visited with Gen. Edwin Walker and participated in the attack on UN Ambassador A. Stevenson, who an undercover informant quoted as threatening the President when he visited Dallas,.

I have been unable to ascertain the name of the Denton informant or the names of the student(s) he was informing on, and their names are suspiciously missing from the list of those subjects who were considered a threat to the President maintained by the Protective Research Section (PRS) of the Secret Service.

When SA Roy Kellerman, the man responsible for security and who conducted the Dallas advance, checked with the PRS, he was quite surprised to learn that they had no active threats to the president in Dallas.

When SA Blaine conducted a similar advance survey for Tampa before the presidents visit there a week earlier, there were two active threats and a number of other threats that came to his attention, including the threat against the President in Chicago that included Thomas Arthur Vallee, and the threat made by Milteer of Georgia.

As Blaine wrote in his book "The Kennedy Detail," “In reality, the advance work was 95 percent of the effort in guaranteeing the president’s safety on a trip. The political team put together the president’s itinerary and it was the Secret Service’s job to figure out how to move the president safely from one place to the next, how to secure every venue and every route. You had to think like an assassin.”

“The first stop before any advance was always the PRS. Located in the Executive Office Building, next door to the White House, the PRS offices were the nerve center for tracking threat cases. Any time there was a threat made against the president’s life – whether it was a written letter, a phone call, details gathered from an informant, field investigation, or an unstable person trying to get inside the Northwest Gate of the White House – an investigative report was initiated and a case file number issued. A PRS agent would type the report on carbon paper so there would be multiple copies, noting the threat maker’s name, last known address, a synopsis of the threats made, a description of the person, and their medical history, if known.”

“Categories were analyzed and categorized according to the seriousness of the threat. They ranged from ‘extremely dangerous’ to the innocuous ‘gate crasher.” There were always people who would show up at the Northwest Gate demanding to see the president about one thing or another…”

“Whenever someone made a threat against the President , they would be categorized as a permanent risk. There’d be an evaluation, the individual would be monitored, and the case file would remain in the Protective Research file for as long as the person was still alive….”

“The records room of the PRS office contained rows and rows of gray metal four-drawer file cabinets that held thousands of threat suspect files, organized by case number. There were smaller file cabinets where index cards of each suspect were organized both geographically and alphabetically. The cards were cross-referenced to the case file. Thus if you knew either the name of a suspect or their last known location, you could go to the small index drawers, locate the card, which would have the case number on it, then go to the large filing cabinets to get the master file.”

“The most serious threat suspects were the ones on the flash cards every agent carried with them at all times. It was the nature of threat makers to wander as vagabonds or itinerants, moving from town to town or state to state. You never knew when or where one of them might show up”

“Agent Blaine had called the PRS from New York City earlier that morning and requested any Florida files be pulled. When Blaine entered the records room, Cecil Taylor, the Special Agent on duty, had some index cares and manila file folders laid out on the table for him.”

[There were two active cases in Tampa]

As noted by Blaine, “There weren’t ANY active threats in Texas.” (TKD p. 63)

Kellerman must have been surprised, incredulous maybe, since anyone who reads the newspaper or follows the news on the radio or TV knew that a few weeks before Kennedy's scheduled visit to Dallas, United Nations Ambassador A. Stevenson was physically attacked by groups of protesters, spat upon and hit with signs.

Former Dallas Mayor Wes Wise, who was a local television and radio reporter at the time, told me that he worked closely with the Dallas Police and Secret Service in trying to ascertain the identify of those who attacked Stevenson by reviewing TV news film and photos of the protesters who attacked Stevenson.

There is mention of this cooperative effort among the Warren Commission testimony when Secret Service Agent Sorrels and Dallas Police Chief Curry testified.

Mr. STERN - I would like you now, Mr. Sorrels, to tell us something of the Protective Research activities that took place in preparation for the President's visit to Dallas, that you recall.

Mr. SORRELS - At that time, we had no known Protective Research subjects that we were making periodic checks on in that area. Mr. Lawson informed me that he had checked with PRS, and that was confirmed.

However, bearing in mind the incidents that had taken place some time before with Mr. Stevenson, I had instructed Special Agent John Joe Howlett, to work with the Special Services Bureau of the Police Department, and I also conferred by phone with the chief of police at Denton, Tex., because some of those individuals who were involved in the Stevenson affair were going to college there….

Mr. STERN - How soon had that happened before the President's visit?

Mr. SORRELS - I don't remember. It was probably some 60 days, maybe, before.

It was quite some time before.

But within recent time. And so Mr. Anderson, chief of police, informed me that he had an informant that was keeping in touch with the situation. I arranged with the Dallas Police Department for Lieutenant Revill to accompany Special Agent Howlett to Denton, and confer with the police there, and to also get photographs of these individuals.

When we were conferring with Mr. Felix McKnight, the managing editor of the Dallas Times Herald, I learned that--from him--that they had photographs taken at the Stevenson incident. So arrangements were made where by Special Agent Howlett and the members of the Dallas Police Department, together with the informant in the case, would view those films, so that there could be pointed out to them individuals known to have been in the incident.

We had duplicate pictures made, and they were furnished to the special agent assigned to the Trade Mart, and were shown to the police officers that were assigned out in that area.

Mr. STERN - Did anything else occur in the field of Protective Research?

Mr. SORRELS - That is all I can recall at the present time….

Mr. STERN - Was there anything else that you recall involving any person or group that might present a danger to the President?

Mr. SORRELS - There was some individuals from Grand Prairie, Tex., that were mentioned to us by the police department that were known to be the type that might appear with handbills or placards--not handbills, but with placards in the area where the President might appear. And it developed that they did show up with placards at the Trade Mart, and they were taken into custody by the police department….

Representative FORD - Did the Secret Service people inquire of you as to your knowledge of these various groups that you had infiltrated?

Mr. CURRY - I don't remember them specifically asking me what were these groups planning to do.

Representative FORD - Did you volunteer any information on it?

Mr. CURRY - I think perhaps we told them what we had done. They were aware of the fact that we did know the plans of the various organizations, and I know we sent Lieutenant Revill and a couple of his men up to Denison, or Denton, to talk to a man that had purportedly said they were going to embarrass the President and had made some remarks about it and after we talked with him he said, "I won't even be in Dallas. I was just pepping off. I will assure you I am not even going to be down there. I don't want any part of it"

Then some of the study group in North Texas, we had an informant in this group, and they had decided they would be in Dallas with some placards to express opinions about the President or some of his views. Some of these people were arrested after the shooting because we were afraid that the people were going to harm them. They were down around the Trade Mart with some placards.

In a report made by the Dallas office of the “Secret Service” on October 30, 1963, twenty-three days before President Kennedy was assassinated, it states that a group of students from North Texas State University went to Dallas and met with retired Major General Edwin A. Walker, an outspoken right-wing activist. One particular student then “reported information to the Denton Police Department,” and the Denton Police “gave it to the Dallas Police Department, and the Dallas Police Department contacted the Secret Service.”

In the “Details” section of the Secret Service report, it states that the information obtained from the informant was that a certain person had said, “Something was being planned for President Kennedy when he visited Dallas on November 22, 1963.”

And it states, “Pictures were obtained of the subject and others of the group, and were provided all security personnel (Trade Mart, behind the head table, etc.).”

(http://www.history-m...Vol17_0283a.htm)

The Secret Service made a second report on the incident and downgraded it to say that the person making the threat had stated that something was “planned to embarrass President Kennedy during his visit to Dallas, Texas.”

The person making the threat was “alleged to be a former member of the ‘Klan’ in Arkansas and the National States Rights Party, and is presently a member of the John Birch Society.”

After the assassination, the Secret Service compiled a list of all those specific threats against the President that came to their attention, and included the information provided by the Denton informant but does not identify him or the name(s) of the suspects who made the threat.

http://www.history-m...Vol17_0283a.htm

COMMISSION EXHIBIT 762

WC Hearings Vol. XVII p. 539

U.S. Secret service

Protective Research Section

CO-2-34-007

DALLAS OFFICE

DATE OF ORIGIN: October 30, 1963

ORIGIN: A student at North Texas State University reported information to the Denton Police Department; the Denton Police Department gave it to the Dallas Police Department; and the Dallas Police Department contacted the Secret Service.

DETAILS: The student informant related that a fellow student had asked him and several others to drive to Dallas and talk with General Walker. The subject and several others went to Dallas and were able to talk with General Walker. They were invited to return to Dallas for the U.S. Day Rally, and later for Ambassador Stevenson’s visit. The subject is supposed to have been present when the Ambassador was spat upon.

The Dallas field office made an investigation

The subject told the informant that something was being planned for President Kennedy when he visited Dallas on November 22, 1963.

Pictures were obtained of the subject and others of the group, and were provided all security personnel (Trade Mart, behind the head table, etc.).

VALUALTION OF

DEGREE OF

DANGER: No threats were made. The subject is alleged to have made derogatory remarks, to the effect that he and others planned to “rub the President’s d--- in the ground.”

ACTION: All security units were alerted and pictures provided.

SUBSEQUENT

ACTIVITY: Investigation completed on December 12, 1963, by the Dallas office in Denton, Texas. Subject believed not to have been involved in any incident concerning the visit of President Kennedy. Subject placed in “trip file” for attention on any further trips.

BK NOTES: So in the end, the photos of the faces of those involved in the attack on Stevenson were taken from the Dallas news film and photos of the incident, and those photos were provided to Secret Service agents providing security at the Dallas Trade Mart, where some of those were identified and taken into custody, but not identified in the records.

Does anyone know who the Denton Informant was? Or who were the student subjects whose photos were taken from the news reels and film of the Stevenson incident?

If they were taken into custody at the Trade Mart there should be a record of them.

Edited January 29, 2013 by William Kelly

[Robert Howard]

FREDRICKSON, CORA B. (MRS. HARRY A.)

Sources: World Book Year Book (picture)

Mary's Comments: Hit Adlai Stevenson with sign on 10/25/63. Harry A. Fredrickson was Chairman of Board of YMCA in 1963.

HATFIELD, ROBERT EDWARD

Sources: Dallas Times Herald, 5/21/64

Mary's Comments: Married salesman, 21 or 22 yrs old. Spits on Adlai Stevenson 10/25/63.

Don’t know if the “married salesman” was also attending a college, but in Darwin Payne’s Big D, p.311 he wrote: Police arrested the woman who had hit Stevenson, but soon released her at the Ambassador’s request. They apprehended and jailed the college student.

The Trade Mart individuals on 11/22/63 are below.

ARRESTS AT MARKET HALL (ACROSS FROM TRADE MART) 11/22/63, ----- -----

Sources: WC Vol. 21, p. 577; WC Vol. 25, p. 856, CD 1444, p. 4 (telephone log)

Mary's Comments:

William Lee Cummings, age 17, 2502 Waldon/Waldrun Drive, Grand Prairie

Gene Audri Guinn, age 31, 636 Lacewood, Dallas, TX

Bobby Savelle Joiner, age 34, 1725 Armstead, Grand Prairie, TX

Gary Dwayne Joiner, age 17, 2502 Waldon/Waldrum Dr., Grand Prairie, TX

Roy Eugene Joiner, age 17, 2413 Christopher, Grand Prairie, TX

I would say there is a fairly good probability that if there were other persons who were picketing at the Stevenson incident, but that is sheer conjecture, as I have never seen any government documents reference the Stevenson incident as far as individuals causing all the trouble. The whole CUSA angle; Burley, Weissman and Schmidt is a thought, as well as the fact that the women in Dallas were just as vociferous as the men, with the exception of firearms training, that is another factor to consider, as far as parties concerned.

The surname Joiner [oil guy] connects to H. L. Hunt, he was called "Dad" Joiner.

FWIW

Robert Hatfield seems like an obvious selection for a possible Denton connection, Although after

viewing the URL below, that seems a little dicey.....

more

Bill: I am fairly sure you have heard of Arch Kimbrough, a Dallasite at the time of the JFK

assassination of JFK, he and attorney Minor Morgan went to the U.S. attorney in Dallas, sharing

what they felt were important facts that could be relevant to the assassination, I am fairly certain

Kimbrough did a lot of research for Mary Ferrell, on the database and chronologies on her website,

at any rate, Kimbrough did some digging on Robert Hatfield; he came up with the following.

See the link.

https://www.maryferr...0&relPageId=223

Note: If you go back five or six previous pages from the URL above, it details his work in this regard,

although the document prefaces Kimbrough's belief that there was a possible Castro-conspiracy,

nonetheless, he has information regarding, for example TSBD employee Jack Daugherty, so he was,

in my mind, no slouch.

But here is the most pertinent item I have found so far:

Dallas Morning News; Date: 12-17-1963; Page: 16;

Plea due on Adlai Encounter;

pl_001292013_0922_11851_627.pdf

Edited January 29, 2013 by Robert Howard

[William Kelly]

FREDRICKSON, CORA B. (MRS. HARRY A.)

Sources: World Book Year Book (picture)

Mary's Comments: Hit Adlai Stevenson with sign on 10/25/63. Harry A. Fredrickson was Chairman of Board of YMCA in 1963.

HATFIELD, ROBERT EDWARD

Sources: Dallas Times Herald, 5/21/64

Mary's Comments: Married salesman, 21 or 22 yrs old. Spits on Adlai Stevenson 10/25/63.

Don’t know if the “married salesman” was also attending a college, but in Darwin Payne’s Big D, p.311 he wrote: Police arrested the woman who had hit Stevenson, but soon released her at the Ambassador’s request. They apprehended and jailed the college student.

The Trade Mart individuals on 11/22/63 are below.

ARRESTS AT MARKET HALL (ACROSS FROM TRADE MART) 11/22/63, ----- -----

Sources: WC Vol. 21, p. 577; WC Vol. 25, p. 856, CD 1444, p. 4 (telephone log)

Mary's Comments:

William Lee Cummings, age 17, 2502 Waldon/Waldrun Drive, Grand Prairie

Gene Audri Guinn, age 31, 636 Lacewood, Dallas, TX

Bobby Savelle Joiner, age 34, 1725 Armstead, Grand Prairie, TX

Gary Dwayne Joiner, age 17, 2502 Waldon/Waldrum Dr., Grand Prairie, TX

Roy Eugene Joiner, age 17, 2413 Christopher, Grand Prairie, TX

I would say there is a fairly good probability that if there were other persons who were picketing at the Stevenson incident, but that is sheer conjecture, as I have never seen any government documents reference the Stevenson incident as far as individuals causing all the trouble. The whole CUSA angle; Burley, Weissman and Schmidt is a thought, as well as the fact that the women in Dallas were just as vociferous as the men, with the exception of firearms training, that is another factor to consider, as far as parties concerned.

The surname Joiner [oil guy] connects to H. L. Hunt, he was called "Dad" Joiner.

FWIW

Robert Hatfield seems like an obvious selection for a possible Denton connection, Although after

viewing the URL below, that seems a little dicey.....

more

Bill: I am fairly sure you have heard of Arch Kimbrough, a Dallasite at the time of the JFK

assassination of JFK, he and attorney Minor Morgan went to the U.S. attorney in Dallas, sharing

what they felt were important facts that could be relevant to the assassination, I am fairly certain

Kimbrough did a lot of research for Mary Ferrell, on the database and chronologies on her website,

at any rate, Kimbrough did some digging on Robert Hatfield; he came up with the following.

See the link.

https://www.maryferr...0&relPageId=223

Note: If you go back five or six previous pages from the URL above, it details his work in this regard,

although the document prefaces Kimbrough's belief that there was a possible Castro-conspiracy,

nonetheless, he has information regarding, for example TSBD employee Jack Daugherty, so he was,

in my mind, no slouch.

But here is the most pertinent item I have found so far:

Dallas Morning News; Date: 12-17-1963; Page: 16;

Plea due on Adlai Encounter;

Thanks Robert!

You the best.