General Walker, Lee Harvey Oswald and Dallas Officials

[Paul Trejo]

6 hours ago, Jason Ward said:

Police and Sheriff testimony in the Warren Commission Part 17: DPD Officer Joe Smith (32)

• <SNIP>

CONCERNS:

1. Officer Smith comes across as a thoughtful, detailed, and literate witness.   His responsiveness is unusual among the DPD witnesses and this is a resource I would look to for more information.
2. The big glaring take away from his testimony is around time; in particular: What time was the TSBD really sealed off?
3. Smith says it was after 1pm when he and Barnett sealed the building; OTOH, DPD Officer Welcome Barnett testifies (above in this thread) that the TSBD remained unsealed for no longer than 3 minutes after the gun shots.
4. Smith and Barnett present dramatically different versions of the sequence of events leading to their assumption of guard duty at the front door of the TSBD.  Smith says he on his own initiative began searching the bushes and parked cars around the TSBD, but then was ordered to guard the front door along with Barnett after perhaps 25 minutes of searching.  OTOH, DPD Officer Barnett presents himself running back and forth once or twice between the front and back doors of the TSBD; assuming guard duty at the TSBD front door within 3 minutes.
5. Both Smith and Barnett mention unidentified Secret Service officers - at the TSBD back door and at the western parking lot area.
6. In my view, Officer Smith is or wants to be an honest witness; which in turn means that Officer Barnett is dishonest.  Why is there testimony so different?   Is Smith not part of the coverup and not actively participating in a theorized master story promulgated by DPD leadership?  I suggest analyzing Smith and Barnett in detail in all they say about the assassination to the WC and elsewhere.  The contrasts here could illuminate clues.  Does Smith go on to a long happy career?
7. Who is the Secret Service man helping Smith search cars?   What specifically makes Smith so sure they are Secret Service?  Do they show ID?
8. Smith's testimony around Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels is suspicious.   I wonder if Smith not only saw Sorrels at the TSBD but also has some detailed knowledge of what Sorrels was doing there?
9. WC Attorney Liebeler IMO is the most assertive of any staffer in getting important conspiracy information into the permanent record.  In this case, Liebeler for inexplicable reasons elicits testimony from Officer Smith concerning the street layout of Dealey Plaza and the possible routes to Stemmons Freeway.  There is no reason Smith should be testifying about this other than, perhaps, Liebeler's perception that this is a man who naturally wants to tell the truth.   This information about street patterns and traffic routes presents an open question for all posterity - in part because Liebeler uses Smith as a vehicle to make sure this an open historical question.

In my opinion, office Smith is a *star* witness; one of the most valuable in the police testimony we've seen so far.

Jason,

Here are my responses to your concerns about DPD Officer Joe Marshall Smith: 

1. I agree that Joe Smith seems more cooperative that most other DPD witnesses.  Yet I find I am not less suspicious of his knowledge of a JFK plot.

2.  I agree with you fully that our key issue here is the TIMING of the sealing off of the TSBD building.

3.  Smith says it was after 1pm when he and Barnett sealed the building.  This is interesting because DPD Inspector Herbert Sawyer estimated about 12:45.   Yet DPD officer Welcome Barnett said it was no later than 12:33.   This is a massive difference.  In my reading, these three different accounts of TIMING suggests that TWO of the men are lying.
Probably Smith is closer to the Truth.  Sawyer is simply trying to make his performance look better than it really was.  The experts in Washington DC told the WC that the slow speed of the DPD was the weak link that allowed the assassin to escape.  Sawyer tries to defend himself.  But Welcome Barnett is bizarre in his claim of a 3-minute gap in TSBD sealing.

4.  The clash between the TIMING of Barnett and Smith is a full half-hour.  It is far too wide for a mistake -- Barnett is clearly lying.  We have one of them -- at least.

5. Since both Smith and Barnett mention Secret Service officers, but cannot identify them, and since Washington DC said that there were no Secret Service officers in Dealey Plaza on 11/22/1963, then what is going on?  Barnett slips up, evidently, and then changes the topic quickly.  Yet I think Smith slipped up too, though Liebeler forced Smith to talk more about it. 

6.  I don't think that Smith is innocent while Barnett is guilty.  I think they are both guilty, and they both went off-script from the "Master Story," and they both struggled to get back on track.  Their plea was "ignorance" in both cases.  "I didn't know."

7.  Who was this SS guy helping Smith?  Here's my opinion.  Smith should never have said "Secret Service," but he needed to justify his behavior.  Then, catching himself, Smith invented a story about drawing his gun, and this guy showing a valid SS ID.  In my opinion: (7.1) Smith knew the guy as a plainclothes DPD man; or (7.2) Smith knew the guy as a local, Dallas Secret Service man, involved in the JFK plot.  He slipped up.

8. I fully agree, Jason, that Smith slipped up again regarding Dallas SS agent Forrest Sorrels.  Sorrels went to the TSBD to keep Amos Euins quiet long enough for the crime scene to be manipulated, keeping the DPD seemingly innocent. 

9.  Liebeler got an opinion from Smith about the parade route, but that opinion has been widely disputed.  It's not part of US history, yet.

I agree this far, Jason -- that Joe Smith offers us the biggest crack yet in all of the DPD testimony we've seen so far.  Yet that doesn't take him off the hook, in my opinion.  His contradiction of others tells me that Smith was way "off script," probably because his superiors had assured him that the WC was on the side of the DPD, and nothing could go wrong.  So, he let his guard down.

The reason that Smith came up with his "auto mechanic" excuse is the same reason that Jesse Curry came up with his, "must have been bogus" excuse.  Years later, Curry would say that he "always thought" that a shot came from the Grassy Knoll, "but we've never been able to prove that." 

WHAT?  When did the DPD ever try to "prove that?"  It's only with the rise of Jim Garrison and the HSCA that Jesse Curry played coy about the Grassy Knoll.  He was one of the key JFK plotters, in my reading.  Lee Harvey Oswald was sacrificed on his watch.

All best,
--Paul

Edited April 5, 2018 by Paul Trejo
typos

[Jason Ward]

On 3/5/2018 at 5:42 PM, Paul Trejo said:

...

General Walker, I propose, planned both the deaths of JFK and of Lee Harvey Oswald to occur on 11/22/1963.  

All best,
--Paul

 

 

 

[Jason Ward]

• General Edwin Walker arrives in New York from Frankfurt in 1961 on a Pan Am flight; this in his handwriting from his US Immigration and Naturalization service landing card:

[Paul Trejo]

On 4/4/2018 at 2:04 PM, Mervyn Hagger said:

Hi Paul, I have joined this read - after posting a related thread concerning Walker.

I must say that I don't get your 'take' from this Walker letter, but I do like the question posed by him at the end of his letter to which he received no reply.

My reason for liking his question has to do with why Walker ended up in Dallas after quitting the Army.

He was accused of promoting the agenda of the John Birch Society to troops stationed in West Germany, but his accuser was not the US Army, but a National Enquirer type tabloid called 'Overseas Weekly'.

In his rebuttal before resigning, Walker provided the press with a response that took up one and half broadsheet pages in a daily US newspaper. Walker named names. He accused Eugene Bernald who operated Pan American Broadcasting Company which was affiliated to the publisher of the 'Overseas Weekly' of being behind the smear.

Why this important is because Eugene Bernald represented the CIA 'front' stations of Radio Swan (later Radio Americas), and Radio Elizabethville in Kantanga (Congo). Both stations also carried 'The World Tomorrow'. Why that is of importance is found in my co-authored academic article which may be read here: http://foundthreads.com/09.html

It would seem that the key is in Walker's question about the CIA, and in Walker's accusation that Eugene Bernald was behind the smear to bring him down.

Hi Mervyn,

When I click on the link you provided, I get to an academic article with your name on it, entitled, Mystery on the Bayou: Of Addicts, Apparitions, Artists, Awards and a Buried Page of History (2011).   I began reading it, and saw nothing about General Walker in it, so I wonder if this was the link you intended.

In any case, I agree with you entirely about the Overseas Weekly smear campaign against General Walker on April 17, 1961.  General Walker talks about it for hours to the US Senate Subcommittee on Military Preparedness in April, 1962.  He complains of other employees of the Overseas Weekly to them.   No active US Generals came to his side during those Subcommittee hearings.  

General Walker was not fired from the US Army -- he was only fired from his command in Augsburg over 10,000 troops and their families.   Also, it was not because of the John Birch Society -- the Pentagon didn't give a damn about that.  It was because General Walker refused to get along with others -- in particular the Overseas Weekly newspaper staff.

I did a study about this chapter of General Walker's career with historian H.W. Brands in 2013.  What historians rarely mention is that in 1960, General Walker sued the Overseas Weekly in a German civil court, and Walker won.  He really stirred up the hornet's nest with that action.  But he really had no choice -- the newspaper writers of the Overseas Weekly had been spying on General Walker for months -- probably trying to pin him on being gay.   Walker had to fight rough, because in 1960 that could bring a Court Martial.

The newspaper writers were following up on rumors.  Walker was the only unmarried General on the base, and he was never seen with any girlfriend at any time.   Also, when the other officers had dinners, dances and other Officer's couples gatherings, General Walker always left the base.   Where did he go?

Walker's official explanation (even to his family in the USA) was that he was worried that he had a brain tumor, so he was visiting doctors all over Germany.   The Overseas Weekly then began to follow him -- he was not visiting any doctors, from what they saw.

After Walker successfully sued that newspaper, they got really angry with him, and produced the famous smear campaign of April 17, 1961, with headlines and two full pages of articles portraying Walker as a John Birch Society fanatic.   The very next day, the Pentagon yanked Walker from his command, and that was that.   JFK was not even bothered with it.   It was a military "shore flap" during the Cold War.   The Pentagon wouldn't tolerate that. 

To prevent General Walker from complaining too much, JFK offered Walker a new command in Hawaii -- also in an educational post.  (So we can see that the John Birch Society really had nothing to do with Walker's removal from his command at the Berlin Wall.)   But Walker turned that offer down and resigned from the US Army in November, 1961, after 30 years of service.   

This was not retirement -- with Army resignation you forfeit your Army pension.   This was the second time that Walker tried to resign, however.   The first time was in 1959,  after two years of Army service in Little Rock, Arkansas, when he converted to the John Birch Society -- and he heard that Ike was Red -- and he believed it.

JFK reluctantly accepted Walker's resignation, because this meant that the Radical Right in the USA had a new propagandist -- a former US Army General.  Here's the Newsweek cover story in December, 1961. 

 http://www.pet880.com/images/19611204_Newsweek_Cover.JPG

All best,
--Paul

 

Edited April 6, 2018 by Paul Trejo
typos

[Jason Ward]

On 3/6/2018 at 8:49 AM, Paul Trejo said:

Jason,

I maintain that Walker believed that RFK personally sent LHO to shoot him.   This is not what I surmise -- this is what Ex-General Walker said, personally.   Here is what Walker told a German newspaper less than 24 hours after JFK was assassinated:

http://www.pet880.com/images/19631129_Deutsche_NZ.jpg

Ex-General Walker would repeat this story nearly every year for the rest of his life.    Here he is again one year before he died:

http://www.pet880.com/images/19920119_EAW_Oswald_arrested.pdf

All best,
--Paul

Hi Paul,

Interesting to me is that Hoover was aware of the intense effort the Right made to make sure the assassination was not blamed on a lone nut, not blamed on the Right, not blamed on the CIA, but instead blamed on a communist, in conspiracy with Castro and Moscow.  Most of below is from The Cross and The Flag, a newsletter put out by Christian conservative leader Gerald L K Smith.

Warren Commission Document 781:

 

1. ...don't blame the CIA

2. ...hmmm....how well known is Walker's German newspaper article in April, 1964?

 

3. ...satanic purveyors of falsehood...

 

4. Gerald L K Smith knows Oswald shot at Walker before the famous letter at the Paine house is published

5. ....the Right is not friendly with Jewish people or African Americans in the early 60s:

 

6. Earl Warren is very feared: were they afraid of what the WR would reveal?

7. Oswald's summer in New Orleans proves he is a Castro-loving communist

 

8. JFK - dead at the hands of communists, but JFK's own friends won't admit it:

.....and are Marina's alleged families ties to Soviet intelligence generally known to the public in March, 1964 when Smith wrote this?

 

 

Edited April 5, 2018 by Jason Ward

[Mervyn Hagger]

4 hours ago, Paul Trejo said:

Hi Mervyn,

When I click on the link you provided, I get to an academic article with your name on it, entitled, Mystery on the Bayou: Of Addicts, Apparitions, Artists, Awards and a Buried Page of History (2011).   I began reading it, and saw nothing about General Walker in it, so I wonder if this was the link you intended.

In any case, I agree with you entirely about the Overseas Weekly smear campaign against General Walker on April 17, 1961.  General Walker talks about it for hours to the US Senate Subcommittee on Military Preparedness in April, 1962.  He complains of other employees of the Overseas Weekly to them.   No active US Generals came to his side during those Subcommittee hearings.  

General Walker was not fired from the US Army -- he was only fired from his command in Augsburg over 10,000 troops and their families.   Also, it was not because of the John Birch Society -- the Pentagon didn't give a damn about that.  It was because General Walker refused to get along with others -- in particular the Overseas Weekly newspaper staff.

I did a study about this chapter of General Walker's career with historian H.W. Brands in 2013.  What historians rarely mention is that in 1960, General Walker sued the Overseas Weekly in a German civil court, and Walker won.  He really stirred up the hornet's nest with that action.  But he really had no choice -- the newspaper writers of the Overseas Weekly had been spying on General Walker for months -- probably trying to pin him on being gay.   Walker had to fight rough, because in 1961 that could bring a Court Martial.

The newspaper writers were following up on rumors.  Walker was the only unmarried General on the base, and he was never seen with any girlfriend at any time.   Also, when the other officers had dinners, dances and other officer gatherings, General Walker always left the base.   Where did he go?

Walker's official explanation (even to his family in the USA) was that he was worried that he had a brain tumor, so he was visiting doctors all over Germany.   The Overseas Weekly then began to follow him -- he was not visiting any doctors, from what they saw.

After Walker successfully sued that newspaper, they got really angry with him, and produced the famous smear campaign of April 17, 1961, with headlines and two full pages of articles portraying Walker as a John Birch Society fanatic.   The very next day, the Pentagon yanked Walker from his command, and that was that.   JFK was not even bothered with it.   It was a military "shore flap" during the Cold War.   The Pentagon wouldn't tolerate that. 

To prevent General Walker from complaining too much, JFK offered Walker a new command in Hawaii -- also in an educational post.  (So we can see that the John Birch Society really had nothing to do with Walker's removal from his command at the Berlin Wall.)   But Walker turned that offer down and resigned from the US Army in November, 1961, after 30 years of service.   

This was not retirement -- with Army resignation you forfeit your Army pension.   This was the second time that Walker tried to resign, however.   The first time was in 1959,  after two years of Army service in Little Rock, Arkansas, when he converted to the John Birch Society -- and he heard that Ike was Red -- and he believed it.

JFK reluctantly accepted Walker's resignation, because this meant that the Radical Right in the USA had a new propagandist -- a former US Army General.  Here's the Newsweek cover story in December, 1961. 

 http://www.pet880.com/images/19611204_Newsweek_Cover.JPG

All best,
--Paul

 

Thanks Paul.

I am coming into this subject for the very first time.

Although I lived in Dallas - Fort Worth Metroplex for about 30 years and drove past the grave of LHO and past the DSBD on a fairly regular basis, I had nothing more than a passing interest in the entire JFK related subject matter - until now. Even now I am coming at it from an angle that is somewhat unusual because I am actually researching the subject of British and American broadcasting. Sorry about the wrong link, the correct one is http://foundthreads.com/09.html

I find it strange that Walker zeroed in on Eugene Bernald who first arrived in the USA from Russia as a very young boy and went on to create a media time-buyng company called Pan American Broadcasting based in NYC. It is still active, but now based on the West Coast although Bernald is deceased.

The reason I find it strange is because Bernald had some sort of affiliation with the company that owned 'Overseas Weekly', but he did not own it. Yet Walker, in his major one and half page lambast that appeared in the Arizona Republic daily newspaper, specifically linked Bernald to the CIA 'front' stations Radio Swan (later renamed Radio Americas), and Radio Elizabethville in Kantanga, (sometimes denoted as the Republic of Katanga ... a breakaway state that proclaimed its independence from the Republic of Congo-Léopoldville on 11 July 1960 under Moise Tshombe.) The reason I find it strange has to do with the link I provided above about 'The World Tomorrow' broadcast which aired on both stations - thanks to Eugene Bernald.

Did Walker have more to say about Bernald?

Why did Walker link Bernald to the 'Overseas Weekly', when its editorial policy was in conflict with that of 'The World Tomorrow' and I would think, Bernald personally, since he also represented the 'Lutheran Hour: Bringing Christ to the Nations'. However, Walker drew a straight line from Bernald to CIA. Why?

I am interested in the earlier lawsuit that you say Walker filed against Overseas Weekly. In that suit does it go into the ownership of 'Overseas Weekly' and does it show a relationship to Eugene Bernald?

Clearly the extreme right-wing religious-political material cited by Jason as being endorsed by Walker is, on the surface at any rate, at odds with what Bernald was promoting. The ideology is not compatible.

But then the strange world that links Gordon McLendon to Clint Murchison Jr., and pop music via a ship broadcasting to Sweden, as well as the side links to Jack Ruby, do not make much sense either. That same ship docked at Galveston for about a year in 1963 after the Swedish episode, and then left in a hurry just after the assassination of JFK.

That ship had been brought to Galveston by RFK as part of Operation Mongoose but was substituted by another ship under the control of both US Air Force in Miami, and a ship's mortgage held by the bank where Manuel Airtime Buesa had his HQ in Florida. That ship then became the home of a Texas financed venture housing two 50kW stations: 'Swinging Radio England' and 'Britain Radio' with a management link to the campaign manager (and personal pilot) of John Tower...

The links get weirder and weirder to the point that when I was working in Arlington, Texas, Bill Colby (ex-CIA boss) came through the door one day to work on a restitution project for the appropriated assets in Haiti owned by a man from Eastland who had put together three of the biggest pop 'pirate' stations of the UK 'Swinging Sixties'. One of them was 'Radio London' (originally to be named 'Radio KLIF London', because it was an Anglicized clone of the version in 'Big D', and this one was known as 'Big L'.)

So why did Walker veer off target (ownership of 'Overseas Weekly'), and blast Eugene Bernald?

There must be a LOT more to the background of this accusation by Walker.

[Mervyn Hagger]

Paul, I stumbled across an earlier Walker thread (how many are there?), and thus your comments: 

"General Edwin Walker, from 11/23/1963 until 11/23/1991, told every outlet, newspaper and US Government official who would listen to him, that Oswald was only one of two shooters at his home on 4/10/1963, and that the other shooter, along with Oswald, was hired by Robert F. Kennedy. Walker believed, firmly, that RFK plotted to kill him. RFK had placed Walker in an insane asylum in early October, 1962, and Walker neither forgot nor forgave that insult. Walker's paranoia against RFK was sufficient to justify any risk.

If Edwin Walker was the center-point of the Dallas conspiracy to assassinate JFK, I have little doubt that H.L. Hunt was his bankroller, because H.L. Hunt was Walker's bankroller when Walker resigned from the Army after 30 years of loyal service -- resigned without a pension. Hunt had high hopes for Walker from 1961-1962, but even H.L. Hunt could not support the man who was widely regarded as the instigator of the Ole Miss riots of 1962. Hunt stopped supporting Walker for public office about that time, but he continued his personal relationship with Walker, according to Hunt's own personal aide."

As I previously explained I am coming at this entire JFK/Walker subject from the sidelines. But my sidelines have Clint Murchison Jr in play during the same 1961-1962 time period, and during this period of time he was involved with Gordon McLendon in a venture based upon the Baltic Sea and targeting Sweden. McLendon also showed up in Stockholm in 1967 and was ejected from Bertrand Russell's farce of a so-called 'War Crimes Trial'.

Questions have been asked about LHO showing up in the region on his way to the USSR. No one seems to know that McLendon and Murchison were involved in a project in that same area. McLendon's senior manager was Bill Weaver. He  wrote a book in novel format which names McLendon and LBJ as the chief perpetrators of the JFK assassination. That book was finished during the time of Weaver's death from cancer, and the ending looks as it is the work of someone else, because it is so absurd.

However, Weaver teamed up with Phillip de Vosjoli whose own account in his own book (Lamia) about the missiles in Cuba, seems to compare favorably with what Weaver wrote. It is also interesting to note that Murchison's father was one of the main backers of Senator McCarthy who seems to have begun the exploitation of a "right-wing" tirade during the Fifties.

But my interests in this subject do not stop there.

Many of the players got involved with Haiti, and in that regard this seemingly unrelated thread created by a man in Eastland, Texas is also worthy of note. http://foundthreads.com/12.html

There seems to be so much conjecture on these threads and not enough hard evidence forming a single timeline.

I noted previous comments in this regard about LHO being arrested and then released for shooting into Walker's home. That person noted that either LHO was arrested and released or he wasn't arrested and released, but like everything else its thread disappears into a sea of conjecture from people who have nothing to add but daydreaming opinions fostered by thin air.

[Paul Trejo]

The thing to remember about General Walker is that he became a propagandist for the Birchers.  He was converted to the power of propaganda during the Korean War, and he later called it the Fourth Dimension of warfare.  The first three dimensions were land warfare (the oldest), sea warfare and air warfare (the modern).   But Fourth Dimension warfare -- propaganda -- was the new wave of war -- also called the Cold War.

in this role, Walker learned to play fast and loose with the facts.   It was all politics.

Yet, General Walker had to continually hide or to deflect attention from the fact that he was gay, and that he had lived as a homosexual all his life -- even as a US Army officer -- which in those days had been illegal.  Also, Walker was seriously planning to become a millionaire from public speaking, like Reverend Billy James Hargis had done. 

Also, the Overseas Weekly had only reported a small fraction of the facts they had on General Walker.  Walker wanted them destroyed -- and especially wanted them to be labeled Communist -- a part of Red propaganda in 1961.

Walker wanted to propagate a myth that the was kicked off his post in Germany by the Communists, because the Communists were afraid of him, personally.   The US Pentagon had kicked him off his post -- yet Walker told the Senate Subcommittee in 1962 that he even suspected that there were Communists in the Pentagon itself.

Although Walker resigned from the US Army, he had no problem when people presumed that JFK had "fired" him from the Army, just as Harry Truman had "fired" General Douglas MacArthur from his post.   Walker even cited MacArthur in his speeches in this context.

All best,
--Paul

Edited April 5, 2018 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

12 hours ago, Mervyn Hagger said:

...So why did Walker veer off target (ownership of 'Overseas Weekly'), and blast Eugene Bernald?

There must be a LOT more to the background of this accusation by Walker.

Mervyn,

In my opinion, Ex-General Walker was making more Anticommunist rhetoric -- and he wanted to deflect attention from his own weak points.   Walker wanted to give an impression that the US Army newspaper, Overseas Weekly, was a Communist front.

Walker probably had fresh information (since the JBS often had fresh information on Reds) that Eugene Bernald was a Communist.   If Walker could taint the Overseas Weekly in any way, he was going to do it.  He was the sworn enemy of the Overseas Weekly.  In his opinion, it was because of them that he lost his post in Germany.  

Of course -- Walker would never consider the possibility that he really lost his post because of his difficulty in remaining in the closet in Germany, and that he had to keep lying to the US Army about his homosexuality -- even after 30 years of loyal, combat service. 

All best,
--Paul

Edited April 5, 2018 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

23 hours ago, Jason Ward said:

Hi Paul,

Interesting to me is that Hoover was aware of the intense effort the Right made to make sure the assassination was not blamed on a lone nut, not blamed on the Right, not blamed on the CIA, but instead blamed on a communist, in conspiracy with Castro and Moscow.  Most of below is from The Cross and The Flag, a newsletter put out by Christian conservative leader Gerald L K Smith.

Warren Commission Document 781:

:

6. Earl Warren is very feared: were they afraid of what the WR would reveal?

7. Oswald's summer in New Orleans proves he is a Castro-loving communist

8. JFK - dead at the hands of communists, but JFK's own friends won't admit it:

.....and are Marina's alleged families ties to Soviet intelligence generally known to the public in March, 1964 when Smith wrote this?

Hi Jason,

Gerald K. Smith -- an Anti-Semite -- got his inside information about the JFK Assassination from General Walker himself.   That's how he knew so many details.

Also, Earl Warren was no so much feared as despised.  That was because of the Brown Decision (1954) to racially integrate US Public Schools.

As for Oswald's summer in New Orleans -- General Walker and Gerald K. Smith were probably updated about this from Dallas FBI agent James Hosty.

The same goes for Marina's alleged ties to Soviet Intelligence -- James Hosty was on top of this from the beginning of 1963.   He and General Walker despised anything that came out of Russia.   

All best,
--Paul

Edited April 6, 2018 by Paul Trejo
typos

[Jason Ward]

On 3/19/2018 at 12:26 PM, Paul Trejo said:

Jason,

...

In my quick review, that limits it to those marked in purple above.   Here's my new list of 14 Dallas Police employees -- and I think this is a manageable number:

     ...

 

DPD Personnel Department (2):

W.R. Westbrook (Captain), ...

To summarize  my request, Jason -- may we please place these 14, plus Deputy Roger Craig, highest in the queue at this time?   If so, please place Deputy Craig next.

All best,
--Paul

 

 

Police and Sheriff testimony in the Warren Commission Part 18: DPD Captain W R Westbrook

W R Westbrook, age 46:

• 22 years experience DPD, currently in Personnel Department doing applicant background checks and managing complaints
• 22NOV63: no special duties assigned
• "somebody" came into his office requesting more manpower at the TSBD
• "I sat around awhile," Westbrook says, because he did not know what to do, his bosses were absent
• So bored with the lack of activity at City Hall, Westbrook walks to the TSBD
• At the TSBD, Westbrook walks in the first floor, walks to the loading dock, and then hears a police officer has been shot in Oak Cliff
• Sgt Stringer drives with Westbrook and an unnamed patrolman to the Tippit murder scene
• Upon arrival at the Tippit crime scene, the corpse is gone; they immediately hear of a suspect at the library and proceed to investigate, but that turns out to be a false alarm.   Westbrook returns to the Tippit crime scene.
• Westbrook is now in contact with Sgt Springer, Bob Barrett of the FBI, and a female witness to the shooting
• Westbrook is without a car; he does not know the officer's identity who was driving him around, nor does he know where the driver went
• The female witness's name is unknown to Westbrook, even though WC attorney Ball asks if it is Helen Markham
• Suddenly, the radio announces a suspect at the Texas Theatre; Westbrook is driven there by an unknown officer, along with Barrett
• Westbrook orders the driver to the rear theater entrance, where he is greeted by an employee who directs him to the suspect
• Westbrook walks down the steps of the stage at the front of the theater towards the suspect, along with Barrett
• Officer McDonald is seen by Westbrook accost Oswald in a chaotic struggle, someone affirms he has control of the suspect's gun
• Humorously, Westbrook says, a police officer's arm is briefly handcuffed on accident because there are so many hands and arms around
• Westbrook assumes brief command authority of the scene by ordering Oswald taken downtown and an inventory made of other theater witnesses
• Because Oswald says something about police brutality, Westbrook sends Officer McDonald "upstairs" at DPD headquarters
• WC attorney Ball spends a lot of time asking about the condition of Oswald's face and possible police-inflicted bruises
• The testimony now reverts to the time shortly after Westbrook was at the library; Westbrook found a jacket thrown under a car in a parking lot towards the alley of a Texaco station at Crawford & Jefferson
• Westbrook cannot explain why he picked this area to search
• An unknown officer pointed out a jacket partially underneath a parked car
• Westbrook struggles to testify where exactly in the parking lot the jacket was found
• The found jacket is given to an unknown officer
• The narrative quickly returns to DPD headquarters where Westbrook says "the gun" was brought to his office, although it "shouldn't have been"
• The gun was marked by Jerry Hill and 2 or 3 more officers, Westbrook says
• Westbrook sees shells with the gun on officer McGee's desk

CONCERNS:

1. My impression is that in 1963 Westbrook's personnel department role is a place to put officers of less enthusiasm or ability in the nuts and bolts of police work, such as investigations.   His initial testimony reads as someone who was at a loss because they weren't invited to the party.   Is Westbrook's part in the day's events trivial or is the questioning too cursory?  What explains Westbrook's seemingly lacklustre role in 22November even though he's in all 4 critical places that day and is a police captain?
2. Westbrook's job is nominally as head of HR, so it seems odd that he has difficulty remembering the names of so many officers that day; how does he not even know who drove him around?  Shouldn't he know more officers than most?
3.  Although Westbrook is in 4 important scenes that day, he offers no meaningful details.  Why isn't he asked more details about the TSBD, the Tippit murder scene, and the Texas Theatre?   Why isn't he asked to explain more about why the personnel office is used to process the weapon found with Oswald?
4. Westbrook complains in his testimony that he was brought before the Warren Commission immediately upon return from vacation without time to prepare. He also makes light of the Keystone Cops style arrest scene at the Texas Theatre. Is it too much to ask that Westbrook take the assassination of a US president seriously, even so seriously as to justify his testimony so soon after his precious personal vacation?
5. Why is Westbrook's testimony around finding the jacket so confused and stuttering?   What are the true facts about finding this jacket?   Why is the chain of custody missing?  Was a jacket found at all?
6. What else happens at the Tippit murder scene?  Witnesses say what?  What other evidence is found?
7. Does Westbrook's testimony around bullets with the gun in his office match testimony given elsewhere about where and when the bullets were found?
8. Westbrook's walk to the TSBD is suspicous.  Is this true or is he really trying to hide other activities in this time period?   Who else sees him at TSBD?
9. Westbrook's explanation for McDonald's presence in his office is suspicious.   Is Westbrook helping manufacture evidence around the gun and bullets?
10. Initially Westbrook comes off as a useless third wheel, he is abandoned and car-less as the big event is happening.  But is this simply a ruse so that he doesn't have to account for his time?
11. Westbrook's rank gives him the freedom of movement, and no one questions the fact that no one is ordering him to these different scenes. Can he not remember his drivers because of something he's hiding - like, perhaps, he drove himself?  Or with someone else? 
12. Is his role at the Tippit crime scene really so useless?  Or does Westbrook's vague and seemingly less important testimony show a masterstroke of conspiracy which in fact allows him all afternoon to do whatever he wants in unaccountable fashion?

Westbrook is either the DPD's unloved useless idiot who has no important role in anything - or - he has a big role and simply comes off as an unimportant third wheel on 22 November.  I can't decide which is true.

<<<>><<>><<>>>

1. Does this memo indicate DPD is trying to hide the whereabouts of a patrol car?   Is Westbrook covering up his own role here; did he drive by Oswald's rooming house and honk the horn while he was allegedly prancing through downtown Dallas on foot?

 

2. Why is the HR department of Capt Westbrook handling evidence?   Why is Westbrook important in finding the jacket and in handling the gun/bullets?

 

 

3. Westbrook's Texas Theatre report seems by the book.   Standard.   100% in keeping with the official story, except of course, AS USUAL, witness drivers to Westbrook's movements are strangely "unrecalled"

 

 

 

4. Poor Ray Hawkins is briefly targeted for investigation as the possible fallguy who lets Ruby into City Hall?

 

5.  Why is the HR guy involved in the Oswald murder investigation - in particular the evidence into how Ruby got in to shoot Oswald?

 

SOURCE:    Items 1 - 5 Dallas Municipal Archives at the University of North Texas Portal to Texas History  https://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/partners/DSMA/

 

 

 

 

Edited April 6, 2018 by Jason Ward

[Mervyn Hagger]

1 hour ago, Paul Trejo said:

Mervyn,

In my opinion, Ex-General Walker was making more Anticommunist rhetoric -- and he wanted to deflect attention from his own weak points.   Walker wanted to give an impression that the US Army newspaper, Overseas Weekly, was a Communist front.

Walker probably had fresh information (since the JBS often had fresh information on Reds) that Eugene Bernald was a Communist.   If Walker could taint the Overseas Weekly in any way, he was going to do it.  He was the sworn enemy of the Overseas Weekly.  In his opinion, it was because of them that he lost his post in Germany.  

Of course -- Walker would never consider the possibility that he really lost his post because of his difficulty in remaining in the closet in Germany, and that he had to keep lying to the US Army about his homosexuality -- even after 30 years of loyal, combat service. 

All best,
--Paul

Hi Paul

Walker said nothing about the Overseas Weekly being a communist publication, but he did ask if the assassination of JFK had anything to do with CIA.

Walker also drew a connecting line from Overseas Weekly to Pan American Broadcasting - even though they were not the publishers - but apparently there was some form of corporate linkage. Walker also singled out Radio Swan and Radio Elizabethville, and it is my firm impression that Eugene Bernald was acting as a sub-contracting 'front' for CIA interests. Bernald had a lot of input in Europe with the placing of 'The World Tomorrow' on all of the main British offshore radio stations of the Sixties. There is much to suspect that this program was also a sub-contracting CIA front, and without it the 'Swinging Sixties' would have fizzled in the UK very quickly since there was no regular, daily domestic outlet for British beat music - apart from the so-called 'pirate' stations.

Listening to Welch and Walker on YouTube it sounds as if their agenda is now being implemented by Donald Trump, and if anything I would certainly label Obama and Clinton as the nearest attempt to introduce a quasi-communist agenda.

I think that there is too much opinionated rhetoric being thrown around today and very little in the way of documented substance. While I am not prepared to state the LHO was not involved in the shooting of JFK, I am certainly not going to suggest that he was a lone gunman. From Walker to Tippett there are just too many 'coincidences' and 'accidents' in serendipitous happenstance to totally destroy the mythology of the Warren Report and its apologists.

Mervyn

 

[Jason Ward]

Here are a few points from my sometimes meandering research efforts:

• DPD reserve officer Kenneth Croy.  He's downtown at the time of the assassination, but inexplicably he doesn't officially participate in the day's events downtown and has 20+ minutes of missing time. Later, he's at the Tippit crime scene.  As with all normal days, he now goes to lunch. However, the place he goes to lunch is very interesting - Austin's Barbecue.   The same Austin's barbecue where Tippit works security on weekend nights, and where Tippit's mistress works as a waitress.  
• The owner of Austin's Barbecue is in business with Bert Bowman - who is partners with Jack Ruby's business partner, Ralph Paul.  The same Ralph Paul who Ruby calls repeatedly over the assassination weekend.
• The owner of Austin's Barbecue is a figure in the John Birch Society, and hosts JBS meetings at his restaurant.

In sum - IMO >>>Austin's Barbecue, Kenneth Croy, and Bert Bowman need more scrutiny<<<

 

 

1. In the afternoon of 22 November 1963, DPD reserve officer Ken Croy drives away from downtown and to the Tippit murder scene.  Then he has a nice lunch at Austin's Barbecue:                                                           [Warren Commission testimony]

 

2. Austin Cook, the owner of Austin's Barbecue, is partnered with Bert Bowman, who is partnered with Ralph Paul.  Paul is Ruby's sponsor and confidant over the assassination weekend.                                                [HSCA final report]

 

3. Austin's Barbecue is important to J D Tippit for at least two reasons: (1) he moonlights there for extra money, and (2) his mistress is there.  [HSCA report]

4. Is Austin's Barbecue a venue for understanding Tippit's role?    [Reasonable Doubt (1985) by Henry Hurt.  p. 165:]

 

5. The long suffering Mrs Tippit was aware of Austin's Barbecue and it's importance in JD's other life:         [FBI interview reports]

6. A little info on Tippit and the John Birch Society and Austin Cook...from Mary Ferrell's chronologies found here https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=40395&relPageId=144&search=Austin_cook john birch

 

 

 

Edited April 6, 2018 by Jason Ward

[Paul Trejo]

5 hours ago, Mervyn Hagger said:

Hi Paul

Walker said nothing about the Overseas Weekly being a communist publication, but he did ask if the assassination of JFK had anything to do with CIA.

Walker also drew a connecting line from Overseas Weekly to Pan American Broadcasting - even though they were not the publishers - but apparently there was some form of corporate linkage. Walker also singled out Radio Swan and Radio Elizabethville, and it is my firm impression that Eugene Bernald was acting as a sub-contracting 'front' for CIA interests. Bernald had a lot of input in Europe with the placing of 'The World Tomorrow' on all of the main British offshore radio stations of the Sixties. There is much to suspect that this program was also a sub-contracting CIA front, and without it the 'Swinging Sixties' would have fizzled in the UK very quickly since there was no regular, daily domestic outlet for British beat music - apart from the so-called 'pirate' stations.

Listening to Welch and Walker on YouTube it sounds as if their agenda is now being implemented by Donald Trump, and if anything I would certainly label Obama and Clinton as the nearest attempt to introduce a quasi-communist agenda.

I think that there is too much opinionated rhetoric being thrown around today and very little in the way of documented substance. While I am not prepared to state the LHO was not involved in the shooting of JFK, I am certainly not going to suggest that he was a lone gunman. From Walker to Tippett there are just too many 'coincidences' and 'accidents' in serendipitous happenstance to totally destroy the mythology of the Warren Report and its apologists.

Mervyn

Hi Mervyn,

I admit that I know next to nothing about Eugene Bernald except what I have learned this week.   What is relevant, IMHO, is that when General Walker testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Military Preparedness in April 1962, he did not mention the name of Eugene Bernald.

Instead, Walker targeted three people in his many pages of testimony against the Overseas Weekly, namely, reporter Siegfried Naujocks , as well as Editor in Chief, John Dornborg, and finally the newspaper’s owner and publisher Marion von Rospach.   General Walker went on and on about how these men were "subversives."

Let me first say about the Overseas Weekly, which I have perused in microfiche, that it is different from the National Enquirer in many ways.  First, the readership of the Overseas Weekly was almost entirely US Army enlisted men -- mostly bachelors.   For this reason, the articles were peppered with photographs of pin-up girls, from cover to cover.   

You don't see that in the National Enquirer.

General Walker cited this fact several times to the Senate Subcommittee, hoping to prejudice them about how "subversive" this newspaper was -- demoralizing the troops.   So, the second thing I would say about General Walker's long rant against the Overseas Weekly newspaper is how utterly foolish he sounds.   Did Walker really think that American GI's would be better off without photographs of pin-up girls?   Seriously?   If he did, then he was further out of touch with the US Army than he knew.

Otherwise, the quality of writing of the Overseas Weekly was very good -- far above the fluff served up by the National Enquirer.   Again, Walker's hatred of the Overseas Weekly newspaper was partly motivated by the fact that they had a filing cabinet full of dirt about him, so that anything he could say to discredit them would be too little.

Eugene Bernald (1908-2000) is remembered as a kid from Russia who grew up in New York's "Hell's Kitchen."   He worked like a fiend until he founded the Pan American Broadcasting Company, and yes, he did have a large investment in the Overseas Weekly.   As a contributing writer, he once interviewed Mahatma Ghandi in India.   So, he was no slouch.   Bernald became wealthy.   In later life he became a philanthropist and an art collector in New York City.   

You didn't become wealthy in the USA by joining the Reds.   It seems to me that General Walker just wanted to lash out against anyone connected with the Overseas Weekly.  Besides -- Eugene Bernald was from Russia.

As for the CIA -- since they are responsible for fighting crime off-shore, it is guaranteed that they would try to cozy up to every single American businessman doing business off-shore.  That should never come as a surprise.

Finally, as for the Warren Report -- although its conclusion of a Lone Shooter is ridiculous given the facts -- the litany of several hundred witnesses brought forward to cover the field of the JFK assassination is truly historical, and 90% of the data is priceless to historians.  It's that 10% web of lies that we need to unpack.

All best,
--Paul

Edited April 6, 2018 by Paul Trejo
typos

[Jason Ward]

On 3/15/2018 at 8:21 AM, Paul Trejo said:

Jason,

In keeping with your most recent CT that the Dallas Police and Sheriff's deputies were the principal ground-crew of the JFK Assassination,

...

All best,
--Paul

 

Paul, we stand on the shoulders of giants.   Much of what we might do is only possible because of a few serious researchers before us, researchers who believed in evidence more than speculation.  In particular, I wouldn't be able to do anything but for the help of Rex Bradford.  His open-source project at www.maryferrell.org makes a lack of evidence inexcusable for anyone interested in the assassination.

I think there's way too much advocacy for a specific CT around here and not enough listening and learning, but insofar as saying that DPD and Sheriff's deputies are the assembly line workers in the assassination production, yes, I am comfortable calling this a fact.

In keeping with my focus on the DPD and my gratitude to serious researchers, I offer below a snippet from the peerless Bill Simpich.   My current preoccupation is DPD reserve officer Kenneth Croy - who says he hears of the assassination and promptly reacts by going to lunch.  Lunch at --- Austin's Barbecue.

 

State Secret, by Bill Simpich, chapter 6:

SOURCE: https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/State_Secret_Chapter6.html