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Two Dallas cops were involved in the pre-arranged murder of Tippit...


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On 11/11/2018 at 4:03 PM, Bill Simpich said:

 

I have researched this - I believe Tad Szulc was misled in the 70s by someone (probably Hunt) - Hunt claimed years later in Cigar Aficionado that he was the temporary station chief in Mexico City in Sept 63.  No document supports it - I think it is pure disinformation on his part - I think Hunt misled Szulc back in the day and continued the yarn for the rest of his life because it insulated Win Scott from serious scrutiny until John Armstrong's Harvey and Lee in 2003 and Jeff Morley's biography of Scott - Our Man in Mexico - in 2008.

Here is Howard Hunt's succession of posts at the CIA - in 1950, his biographic profile lists him as OPC/Latin America/Ops/COS.  OPC was the Office of Policy Coordination - which merged with CIA in the early 50s.  The profile shows that he arrived in 1950 with a fair degree of autonomy, and that in 1951 he became OSO deputy chief in Mexico City.

He is also listed In 1962 as DDP/CA Staff/COS.   From 62-64 his biographic profile shows he worked in DC and then Spain at DODs (Division of Domestic Operations).  He had some cover while using the name Edward Hamilton in Washington DC  - I don't think the cover had anything to do with Mexico City - during 11/63 he was handling publications and proprietaries like WURABBIT and WUTARDY in DC and (I believe) Spain.

David Phillips told investigators that Hunt was the chief of covert action in Mexico City and that he, Phillips, succeeded him - that may have been true in the 1962 period.

I think that what is not listed here but found in documents is this:

"Twicker" is listed as chief of station in Mexico City in this August  31, 1960 memo - Walter Twicker is a long-time pseudo of Hunt - maybe Scott was on vacation at that moment, and Hunt was acting chief, because Scott was chief continually from 1956-1969.
 
 
I think the answer is here in this 9/1/60 document, referring to "MASH/Twicker".   Mexico City had its own MASH office, which later became its own JMWAVE office.  
 
This post and others all say " From Twicker" - at some point, it looks like someone got confused and thought Twicker was the Mexico City station chief.   
 
Twicker/Hunt was almost certainly Mexico City's MASH station chief - a tiny outfit.
 
 
By October 3, 1960, Twicker is holding the fort at MASH in Miami.

 

Bill - I really appreciate your detailed post. I cannot figure out what WU refers to, though it reminds me of WUBRINY in Haiti. You say you think Hunt was in Spain in 1963. Can you flesh that out at all?

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13 hours ago, Mark Lawson said:

Regarding Hunt's later claims to have been "chief" of the MX CIA station during the alleged "Oswald" visits, Morely cites interviews with numerous sources, including Hunt himself; as well as Hunt's book Give us This Day.  Morely makes no reference, that I can find, to Hunt's claim of having been MX chief at that time.  ML

Yes, apparently no one has found any primary source doc backing up Hunt’s claim that he himself was temporary MC station chief in Sept. ‘63, or at least when the “Oswald” nonsense was unfolding.  But Bill Simpich’s revelation that Hunt, as [Walter] Twicker, was listed as “Chief of Station, Mexico City” in an Aug. 31 1960 CIA dispatch from “Chief of Station, Habana” suggests it is not impossible to believe he (Hunt) may have assumed the position temporarily in Sept. 63, though it is clear that Scott was the longtime head of MC station both before and after that time.  

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David J. and All

David Atlee Phillips was an interesting character, to say the least.  I believe his Agency position was well above Howard Hunt (and Win Scott) and probably a Division Director in the federal hierarchy.  He and his second wife were raising seven children (four from his first marriage; three from his second) when he died in 1988.  He was born in Fort Worth, Texas and attended William and Mary College and Texas Christian University. His NYT obituary states that "tall and ruggedly handsome, he became an actor in New York, but World War II intervened". He served as a nose gunner in the Army Air Forces, was shot down over Austria but made it back to Allied lines after escaping from a German prison camp.  Phillips - a failed actor turned expatriate newspaper publisher in Santiago, Chile - was recruited into the CIA in 1950.  In 1955, he won a Distinguished Intelligence Medal for mounting deceptive radio broadcasts in the CIA’s overthrow of the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954.  With Howard Hunt, Phillips served as propaganda chief in the CIA’s failed effort to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. When he was assigned to Mexico City in 1962, station chief Win Scott described him as “the finest covert action officer I have ever met.”  Documents recently released show that he began as contract agent in 1951 and later became a staff employee in 1960 (earning just under $12,000 a year).  

Much of his career was conducted under deep cover, and he was rarely photographed.  Phillips served as a station chief in the Dominican Republic and in Rio de Janeiro.  He worked under diplomatic cover in Mexico City as a Branch Chief of Cuban Operations.  He rose through the ranks from contract agent, undercover intelligence officer, chief of station and eventually over all Western Hemisphere operations (a CIA Division) in Latin America.  By 1975 Phillips had 25 years of service, at a time when negative news stories and public sentiment were circulating about the CIA's reputation.  In his sealed sworn testimony to the HSCA in 1976, Phillips had trouble telling a straight story about what he knew of Lee Harvey Oswald. One day he told the Washington Post that Oswald had threatened JFK in Mexico City. The next day, when testifying under oath, he denied it. HSCA counsel Richard Sprague said Phillips had "slithered" around questions about his statements to the Post.  Phillips also denied under oath using the name Maurice Bishop and knowing Antonio Veciana; Gaeton Fonzi believed they could make a case for perjury, but HSCA Chief Counsel Blakey declined to bring charges. He was also questioned by the HSCA about his possible relationship with both Freeport Sulphur and the Moa Bay Mining Company.  Alleged evidence linking Phillips to Oswald surfaced in 1979, only to disappear in an apparent theft of HSCA’s research materials:  HSCA investigators discovered a training film from the archives of Georgetown University. David] Ferrie, Oswald, Guy] Banister, and David Atlee Phillips were all on an 8mm "home movie" shot in the summer of 1963 (Ref. Hopsicker 2001, p. 153).  Antonio Veciana also allegedly appeared in the film, which was footage of a Cuban-exile guerilla training camp in Louisiana.

 Phillips was first called to testify before the HSCA in November  1976 under closed session. This is the only time Phillips testified before the HSCA while Richard Sprague was Chief Counsel.  Conspicuously absent from the hearing was Robert Tanenbaum.  Somehow, Phillips had something to do with the implosion of the original HSCA.  Apparently, Tannenbaum had become paranoid, distrusting everyone. What drove Richard Sprague to resign as chief counsel was his proposed use of controversial investigative equipment, unrestricted investigation, and his refusal to play politics with chairman Gonzalez.  Sprague did indicate, in retrospect after his resignation, that if he had it to do over, he would have started his investigation with an investigation of the CIA’s role; he did not indicate that Phillips or his testimony had any role in his resignation.  In his 1996 ARRB testimony, Tanenbaum also mentions David Phillips in connection with the budget crunch of early 1977:

“When it became clear that we had to recall David Phillips to the Committee, when it became clear that we had to probe into this area that burst forward like ripe peaches falling from trees, the CIA's involvement with anti-Castro Cubans and Lee Harvey Oswald, where the Committee almost shut us down virtually. That is to say, we could no longer make long distance telephone calls.  We had franking privileges removed.”

Read more here: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article183786081.html#storylink=cpy

Phillips apparently created problems for the agency after he retired. He battled the CIA to allow him to publish his memoir, titled “The Night Watch.”  He also caused a crisis when The New York Times ran a story on March 1, 1977, alleging that the CIA funneled large sums of money to foreign leaders.  Phillips retired from the agency in 1975 and founded the Association of Former Intelligence Officers in the same year.  He was a propagandist to the very end.  He wrote a breezy, anecdotal account of his career in ''The Night Watch, 25 Years of Peculiar Service,'' which appeared in 1977.  He authored five books, including his CIA memoir (The Night Watch), Careers in Secret Operations: How to Be a Federal Intelligence Officer, The Terror Brigade, The Carlos Contract, and The Great Texas Murder Trials: A Compelling Account of the Sensational T. Cullen Davis Case. 

Gene


Read more here: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article18378His career included assignments as the agency's station chief in Venezuela, Brazil and the Dominican Republic, operation of a radio station on an island off the coast of Cuba during the early months of Fidel Castro's rule, and undercover duty in GuateHis career included assignments as the agency's station chief in Venezuela, Brazil and the Dominican Republic, operation of a radio station on an island off the coast of Cuba during the early months of Fidel Castro's rule, and undeHis 25-year CIA career was conducted under “deep cover,” meaning he utilized fictitious names and corporate identities to disguise who he was.  He was never to be photographed except for his official identification for the CIA and U.S. State Department (he worked under diplomatic cover in MeHis 25-year CIA career was conducted under “deep cover,” meaning he utilized fictitious names and corporate identities to disguise who he was.  He was never to be photographed except for his official identification for the CIA and U.S. StateHis 25-year CIA career was conducted under “deep cover,” meaning he utilized fictitious names and corporate identities to disguise who he was.  He was never to be photographed except for his official identification for the CIA and U.S. StateHis 25-year CIA career was conducted under “deep cover,” meaning he utilized fictitious names and corporate identities to disguise who he was.  He was never to be photographed except for his official identification for the CIA and U.S. State Department (he worked under diplomatic cover in Mexico City, 1961-1965). Department (he worked under diplomatic cover in Me xico City, 1961-1965). Department (he worked under diplomatic cover in Mexico City, 1961-1965).xico City, 1961-1965).rcover duty in Guatemala, Mexico CHis career included assignments as the agency's station chief in Venezuela, Brazil and the Dominican Republic, operation of a radio station on an island off the coast of Cuba during the early months of Fidel Castro's rule, and undercover duty in Guatemala, Mexico C ity and Beirut.ity and Beirut.mala, Mexico City and Beirut.6081.html#storylink=cpy

 

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On 11/13/2018 at 8:17 AM, Jim Hargrove said:
On 11/12/2018 at 6:33 PM, Mark Lawson said:

Regarding Hunt's later claims to have been "chief" of the MX CIA station during the alleged "Oswald" visits, Morely cites interviews with numerous sources, including Hunt himself; as well as Hunt's book Give us This Day.  Morely makes no reference, that I can find, to Hunt's claim of having been MX chief at that time.  ML

Yes, apparently no one has found any primary source doc backing up Hunt’s claim that he himself was temporary MC station chief in Sept. ‘63, or at least when the “Oswald” nonsense was unfolding....

Jim, have you considered contacting Jefferson Morely directly, via jfkfacts.org or via e-mail message, to see if Hunt might have made any such claim(s) during Morely's interview(s)?  ML

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Sounds like a good idea, Mark.  I'd like to get back to discussing something about the Tippit murder in this thread, but there is a distracting glitch that I assume others see on this page as well: a LONG, NARROW column of type starting in Gene's post above and running far down the page.  Do others see the same thing? Can this be fixed?

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Jim

I think that was a bad cut & paste.  I tried to lift some quotes out of a document about Phillips, and couldn't get rid of the long narrow thing.  Sorry for that

Gene

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When author James Douglass asked Butch Burrows if he saw anyone else get arrested at the Texas Theatre the day Kennedy was killed, Burrows answered, “Yes, there was a lookalike—an Oswald lookalike.”  He described to Douglass the arrest of an Oswald “lookalike” in the balcony of the theater at nearly the same time “Oswald” was arrested on the main floor.  

Whatever you may think of Burrows’ belated observation, there is considerable evidence to back up his claim.  Two Dallas police documents indicate LHO was arrested in the balcony of the theater, not the main floor.  Deputy Sheriff Buddy Walthers saw Lt. Cunningham and Det. Toney questioning the balcony Oswald.  

During the filming of Oliver Stone’s JFK, Bernard Haire, the owner of Bernie’s Hobby Shop located near the Texas Theatre, told crew members repeatedly that he saw “Lee Harvey Oswald” escorted out the back of the theater.  For decades, he believed it was the man eventually killed by Jack Ruby.

According to an old Dallas Police report, the cops noticed a pickup truck with the engine running waiting near the back of the Texas Theater at about the time Oswald was arrested.  Although the vehicle was apparently searched for weapons, no note was made about the driver or the owner or even the license plate.

What could cause police to so quickly abandon interest in a potential getaway vehicle?  One possibility is that they might quickly lose interest in the truck if it was being driven by a Dallas cop.  John and I have searched without success, but does anyone know what kind of vehicle Reserve Officer Kenneth Croy drove that day?

pickup_truck.jpg

 

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1 hour ago, Gene Kelly said:

Jim

I think that was a bad cut & paste.  I tried to lift some quotes out of a document about Phillips, and couldn't get rid of the long narrow thing.  Sorry for that

Gene

Gene,

 

It's not just you. I've seen the same thing in posts by others.

There's something going on with the Forum's software.

 

Steve Thomas

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11 minutes ago, Jim Hargrove said:

According to an old Dallas Police report, the cops noticed a pickup truck with the engine running waiting near the back of the Texas Theater at about the time Oswald was arrested.  Although the vehicle was apparently searched for weapons, no note was made about the driver or the owner or even the license plate.

What could cause police to so quickly abandon interest in a potential getaway vehicle?  One possibility is that they might quickly lose interest in the truck if it was being driven by a Dallas cop.  John and I have searched without success, but does anyone know what kind of vehicle Reserve Officer Kenneth Croy drove that day?

 

 

Jim,

It's funny. The report talks about the pickup with the engine running, but no mention of a driver.

What's the possibility it's the same pickup observed by Julia Ann Mercer at the grassy knoll?

Or the pickup parked on Commerce as seen in the Zapruder film?

 

Steve Thomas

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Some of the long string of vertical text that is appearing in this thread...

 

"Career included assignment as the agency's station chief in Venezuela. Brazil and the Dominican Republic. Operation of a radio station on an island off the coast of Cuba during the early months of Fidel Castro's rule. And his... CIA career was conducted under deep cover. Meaning … He was never to be photographed except for his official identification for the CIA and U.S. State Department. (He worked under diplomatic cover in Me... CIA career was conducted under deep cover.

 

Mexico City 1961 - 1965"

 

Steve Thomas
 

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1 hour ago, Steve Thomas said:

Some of the long string of vertical text that is appearing in this thread...

 

"Career included assignment as the agency's station chief in Venezuela. Brazil and the Dominican Republic. Operation of a radio station on an island off the coast of Cuba during the early months of Fidel Castro's rule. And his... CIA career was conducted under deep cover. Meaning … He was never to be photographed except for his official identification for the CIA and U.S. State Department. (He worked under diplomatic cover in Me... CIA career was conducted under deep cover.

 

Mexico City 1961 - 1965"

 

Steve Thomas
 

https://deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?16862-The-Tippit-Case-in-the-New-Millenium&p=124816#post124816

I can't seem to post images right now... this is a link to a similar thread about Tippit and Holan and Croy and Westbrook, etc...

I also posted a photo of David Philips with his signature... 

 Some additional images of Phillips

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/photos/david-atlee-phillips?sort=mostpopular&mediatype=photography&phrase=david atlee phillips#license

 

 

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2 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

Jim,

It's funny. The report talks about the pickup with the engine running, but no mention of a driver.

What's the possibility it's the same pickup observed by Julia Ann Mercer at the grassy knoll?

Or the pickup parked on Commerce as seen in the Zapruder film?

Steve Thomas

Since we don’t even have a cursory description of the pickup near the back of the theater, I suppose we’ll never know.  It is pretty obvious, though, that the chaos in and around Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination makes it easy to understand why not every vehicle present was searched or studied.  The same cannot be said of the alleyway near the back of the theater at the time of Oswald’s arrest.  It makes little sense that there was enough interest in a nearby vehicle with the engine running to search it for weapons, and then to totally ignore it.  At most a few of the Dallas cops were involved in this conspiracy.  What reason might the others have to lose interest in the pickup so quickly and thoroughly?

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3 hours ago, Jim Hargrove said:

According to an old Dallas Police report, the cops noticed a pickup truck with the engine running waiting near the back of the Texas Theater at about the time Oswald was arrested.  Although the vehicle was apparently searched for weapons, no note was made about the driver or the owner or even the license plate.

 

Jim,

 

In January, 1964, Waggoner Carr (the Attorney General of Texas), sent J.Lee Rankin three bound volumes of material that the Dallas Police had gathered in the JFK case.

These three volumes were labeled A. B, and C and comprise CD 81.

The DPD case file is 81b and starts on page 311 of CD 81.

You see the number 94 at the bottom of the report you included?

That's page 94 of CD 81b, or page 404 of CD 81 (somewhere along the way, the exact page numbering got mixed up a little).

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10483#relPageId=404&tab=page

The report was written up by H.H. Stringer, a Sergeant in the Personnel Bureau under Captain Westbrook.

(Stringer's name was H.H. Stringer, not R.D. Stringer as Westbrook said in his WC testimony)

Westbrook:

"I just came off of vacation and they hit me with this this morning as soon as I got to the office. I can't recall whether or not it was the dispatcher's office, but I think it was--somebody in the dispatcher's office had told us they needed some more men at the Texas Depository Building, so I sent the men that were in my office, which were then Sergeants Stringer and Carver, and possibly Joe Fields and McGee,..."

 

Mr. WESTBROOK. "After we reached the building, or after I reached the building, I contacted my sergeant Sgt. R. D. Stringer, and he was standing in front..."

 

Steve Thomas

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