Edwin Walker

[Paul Trejo]

Howard L. Hunt stood to lose billions of dollars if the changes to the oil depletiation allowances had gone through as JFK wanted.

The Fed stood to lose the interest it charged on lending non-existent money to the U.S. government as JFK wanted to issue money backed by silver.

The Mob were losing billions because of Castro's takeover of Cuba.

And it wasn't about money?

Well, Ray, I still maintain it wasn't about money. H.L. Hunt was asked this same question in his 1966 Playboy interview, and he denied that his opposition to JFK was over the oil depletion allowance. Hunt gave two reasons: (1) the Kennedys had made a lot of money in oil, too; and (2) Congress, not the President, makes the laws regarding oil production.

As for debates about the gold-standard, the silver-standard, the Fed-standard and what not, they are never-ending, and they continue to this very day. While Alexander Hamilton was arguably shot over his position on this, Aaron Burr was the metal-standard advocate, and was the killing party. It's a long shot to guess, on a mere hunch, that Fed-standard advocates were the ones who killed JFK.

Most of the Mob were smart enough to know that JFK didn't love Castro -- and JFK did his part to keep secret plots to kill Fidel going underground. (Only the hot-heads were dumb enough to believe that a secret CIA plot to overthrow Fidel Castro at the Bay of Pigs would "expect" to receive the publicly visible help of the US Air Force!)

JFK was a rich man in a rich man's world. He had it all. His one mistake, according to the Southern politicians, was that he opposed the South on the topic of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement.

We are far too hesitant to look at the South squarely in the eye. This is possibly because many of us Northerners remain prejudiced to some degree, and so would prefer to hedge our bets. But JFK was forced to make a decision for or against Martin Luther King -- and he made his decision: FOR. That's how I see it.

The night of JFK's 11 June 1963 Civil Rights Speech, Medgar Evers was killed in cold blood on his own driveway in Mississippi by a long-time member of the KKK and the White Citizens' Council, namely, Byron de la Beckwith.

If Byron de la Backwith hadn't been in prison on 22 November 1963, he would've been my suspect #1 for the assassination of JFK. As it turned out, in early February of 1964, Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett and ex-General Edwin Walker paid a friendly, encouraging visit to Byron de la Beckwith at his first of many courtroom trials.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited June 6, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

Well, I think the time is finally right to revisit the theory of Edwin Walker's homosexuality.

There's a lot of speculative writing about this topic, but IMHO the most important writing was begun by Jim Root within the context of this Forum thread.

Jim said that he traveled to Edwin Walker's home town, Center Point, Texas, to interview the neighbors among whom Edwin Walker had grown up. Those neighbors told Jim Root that Edwin Walker was already known as a boy for his struggles with homosexuality.

There was talk in Edwin Walker's neighborhood that his father sent him off to military school at a young age in order to address the so-called "problem" of his homosexual tendencies.

Having entered the miltary at a very young age, it is interesting that Walker remained in the military until he was 52 years old.

During that entire time, there is no record (not even amongst his personal papers) to suggest that he was ever engaged to be married, or that he ever had one girl friend. (Even on this Forum, there was (or remains) a male member who met Edwin Walker personally, and he admitted that Edwin Walker made a pass at him.)

Now -- the 1960's were suppressive times for gay rights -- but generally they were also very naive times. FBI DIrector J. Edgar Hoover, for example, was also a bachelor past 50 years, and this was simply ignored because of his great accomplishments in national law enforcement.

Jim Garrison liked to point out that there were many homosexuals involved in the plot to kill JFK. We might include, besides Edwin Walker, also Jack Ruby, Clay Shaw, David Ferrie, Eladio Del Valle, Dean Andrews, Ewan McDuff, Warren Reynolds and Perry Russo, without exhausting everybody on Jim Garrison's list. At one point Jim Garrison had a theory that the JFK assassination was a "homosexual thrill killing."

The early 1960's were not only a naive time, they were also a time of sexual suppression for many people, including homosexuals, and Jim Garrison was quick to exploit that. It is said that Garrison would often use homosexual informers in the underworld to investigate New Orleans crimes.

Yet Garrison was wrong to imagine that homosexuality was naturally associated with underground activity -- rather, it is sociologically more precise to say that closeted homosexuality could be associated with underground activity. (This is because any behavior that was hidden would quickly encounter others who were hiding their behavior, and thus formed part of the "underground.")

Yet in the early 1960's, virtually every homosexual in the USA was "underground" or "in the closet." That was normal life for homosexuals in the USA. It was a pathetic fate, a clear form of persecution based on gender preference.

Neverthless it was a fact of life in the early 20th century, and especially in the US Army and military in general. I think this should be a major factor in the research of ex-General Edwin Walker -- because Walker was clearly obliged to be a homosexual-in-the-closet from 1930 to 1961, when he served in uniform.

Walker's problem, of course, was that it was a court-martial offense to be homosexual in the US Army in those years. So Jim Root's research suggests that Edwin Walker was living a double life inside the US Army for over 30 years.

This is important psychological information vis-a-vis JFK research, in my opinion, because it suggests that Edwin Walker's real problem was his conflict with the USA over his sexual preferences, and his obsessive conflict with JFK was only a symptom of that mental stress.

Writers usually say that JFK fired Walker from the Army in April 1961 because of he taught his troops in Germany to read John Birch Society materials. That is false on several grounds. First JFK never fired Walker -- he transferred him to Hawaii, to a better job. Secondly, there is no truth to the notion that Walker's Pro-Blue program was patterned after the John Birch Society.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, Walker resigned his US Army commission (and gave up his pension as the only US General in the 20th century to do such a thing) not only in November 1961, but he also submitted his resignation to the US Army in October of 1959, when Eisenhower was President.

Here is a URL from Walker's personal papers to illustrate this point: http://www.pet880.co...esignations.JPG

It's hard to imagine that any West Point graduate would fall for the unpatriotic lies of the John Birch Society which claimed that FDR, Truman, Eisenhower and JFK had all been Communist traitors. So, I'm searching for psychological explanations.

In my current hypothesis, hiding his homosexuality was becoming harder and harder for Edwin Walker (despite decades of practice) the more he was promoted and visible to the public. The strain was too great. He had to hide his homosexuality with all his strength. But he couldn't even speak about it (the times were so different then).

Walker was ready to call it quits in 1959, when he submitted his first resignation, but when the Eisenhower administration denied that first resignation, Walker angrily took his job in Germany, and set up a rightist indoctrination program for his 10,000 troops, and told them that President Truman was "definitely pink."

In other words -- Walker hit the ground screeching. He didn't want the job in the first place. As strong evidence, here is a letter from Edwin (Ted) Walker to his brother, Frank Walker, dated 1 January 1960, only one month after Edwin Walker arrived in Germany. It is easy to see how much Walker hated his German job right away. Here is the URL: http://www.pet880.co...to_Frank_01.JPG

Yet he didn't tell his brother about his psychological torture of living in the closet as a homosexual. Instead, he turned toward a scapegoat ideology: he was being persecuted, he continually said, even before a Senate Subcommittee -- by the Communists in Washington DC.

Walker was continually on the defensive -- but this was because of secret Communists, he claimed, and not because he was hiding his homosexuality from a court-martial.

Edwin Walker eventually made the Kennedys into his personal scapegoats -- first at Ole Miss in 1962 -- and then in Dallas in 1963. That's how it appears to me.

I welcome all constructive comments on this dimension of this historical figure.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

While I agree that the militant right is a good candidate, I suggest that racism is the delivery vehicle of the repecussions of JFK's 1963 civil rights act backed by a President with a well proven trackrecord of backing up his words with action would cause an enormous shift in the economy and power that would be another sort of Sherman's march in effect on the livelihood of millions of people.

This is where the anticipated pain would be felt, hence a counter-action that resulted in the assassinations.

Civil Rights IS a Communist priority. It's not wrong to ally civil rights with communist activity nor to ally the KKK with fascism. Communism calls for a shift in social and economic power and becomes a viable option during times of widespread social unrest.

This is what Oswald meant with his writings about the Minutemen: This is also the opportunity for their supremacy. That supremacy however is the last gasp of capitalism.

With it they can reestablish their supremacy. In other words the militant right fights for capitalism because their interests converge.

I think Kennedy was caught between a rock and a hard place as a result of his actions. IOW the system killed JFK. The system lives.

Economics (which is about where we end up having pointless exchanges)

It's no accident that General Edwin Walker, after he resigned from 30 years of US Army service, attempted to get into politics on the side of the extreme right-wing.

When Edwin Walker was a boy, Woodrow Wilson was the Democrat in the White House, and Wilson was an outspoken advocate of all-white Universities. One can make a case that Wilson was nominated by the Democrats because he successfully kept Princeton University all-white when he was President of that University.

In the early days of the 20th century, the Democratic Party was against the Party and Politics of Abraham Lincoln. They dominated the South, and they were friendly with the KKK and the Jim Crow Laws. That's the real history of the Democratic Party before FDR, Harry Truman and JFK.

When the USA emerged on top of the world at the end of World War Two, the Democratic Party had been transformed by FDR. It was suddenly international in scope, and promoted Social Welfare programs. It was a radical change.

The reaction to this new liberalism after World War Two was just as radical; it emerged in the politics of Joe McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Council. After McCarthy died, the mantle was passed to Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. Their concern was the Brown Decision -- President Eisenhower's and Earl Warren's mandate to racially integrate US public schools.

In this effort they revived the KKK and the White Citizen's Councils of the South with a new doctrine -- Civil Rights is Communism. In this way, the US fear of uprising Black Americans was given a voice, and the voice was loud.

It was on the basis of the politics of Democratic President Woodrow Wilson that former General Edwin Walker could claim that his riots at Ole Miss in September 1962 were part of a conservative effort to keep US Universities all-white.

The voice of MLK was not as loud, but it was far more eloquent. He called for a Christianity that did not exclude people based on race. The extreme right-wing in the USA had collapsed into the opposite position as they called for a Christianity that did exclude people based on race.

This turned the moral tide. The majority of Americans began to sympathize with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

When JFK turned toward MLK in his 8 June 1963 speech, the radical right-wing in America was galvanized against the tide of history. That very night Medgar Evers (NAACP organizer) was shot dead in his own driveway in Mississippi.

On 8 September 1963, the radical right wing acted again and bombed an African-American Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls inside.

On 24 October 1963, the radical right-wing acted again in Dallas, Texas, preventing Adlai Stevenson from presenting his speech extolling the UN. He was beaten with a placard and spit upon in the streets. Dallas newspapers knew that former General Edwin Walker had organized the booby-trapping of the building the night before.

So, when JFK rode through Dallas on 22 November 1963 for the last ride of his life, it was not a major surprise to those who followed US right-wing politics that he would not be allowed to escape alive.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited April 8, 2014 by Paul Trejo

[Jim Root]

Hi Paul

I appreciate the work that you are doing! While my research leads me in a different direction toward a conclusion the information that you are bringing up closely mirrors my own. I envy that you are in Austin and so close to the Walker papers....I have only had one brief encounter with them.....which I would love to study further.

I too believe that the potential of Walker's homosexual tendencies would force him to lead a very strange life while in the military. But, as is suggested by the life of J. Edgar Hoover, do also speculate that Walker may have had a long term love interest that may have been a controlling factor in his life. I will leave that a lone for the time being but would love to speak with you in a less open setting about that particular possibility.

The Civil Rights movement that you speak of, especially dealing with the Warren Court, is also something that I find interesting in its association, in whatever way, to the Kennedy assassination, if for no other reason than Earl Warren put his name on the investigation that was done following the assassination.

So many threads that tie together in this case but I believe it is much deeper than the obvious "Right - Wing" that was responsible.

I was unable to locate the October 1959 resignation attempt that you spoke of but would love to know more about it and view it if you could post it here. I have also heard mentioned that Walker attempted to resign prior to being assigned to Little Rock, Arkansas but have never seen the solid proof of that as well. You mentioned also a letter to his brother Frank dated January 1, 1960 "only one month after Edwin Walker arrived in Germany..." My records show that he arrived in October of 1959 about three months before January.....would love to see that letter as well since the lead you posted did not take me to it.

Must admit that the October 1959 letter you spoke of has my mind spinning.

Thank you for your work,

Jim Root

[Paul Trejo]

Hi Paul

I appreciate the work that you are doing! While my research leads me in a different direction toward a conclusion the information that you are bringing up closely mirrors my own. I envy that you are in Austin and so close to the Walker papers....I have only had one brief encounter with them...which I would love to study further.

I too believe that the potential of Walker's homosexual tendencies would force him to lead a very strange life while in the military. But, as is suggested by the life of J. Edgar Hoover, do also speculate that Walker may have had a long term love interest that may have been a controlling factor in his life. I will leave that a lone for the time being but would love to speak with you in a less open setting about that particular possibility.

The Civil Rights movement that you speak of, especially dealing with the Warren Court, is also something that I find interesting in its association, in whatever way, to the Kennedy assassination, if for no other reason than Earl Warren put his name on the investigation that was done following the assassination.

So many threads that tie together in this case but I believe it is much deeper than the obvious "Right - Wing" that was responsible.

I was unable to locate the October 1959 resignation attempt that you spoke of but would love to know more about it and view it if you could post it here. I have also heard mentioned that Walker attempted to resign prior to being assigned to Little Rock, Arkansas but have never seen the solid proof of that as well. You mentioned also a letter to his brother Frank dated January 1, 1960 "only one month after Edwin Walker arrived in Germany..." My records show that he arrived in October of 1959 about three months before January.....would love to see that letter as well since the lead you posted did not take me to it.

Must admit that the October 1959 letter you spoke of has my mind spinning.

Thank you for your work,

Jim Root

Thanks for the interest, Jim. Since the Briscoe shut down my web site, it'll take some time to recover the Walker papers you cite, but I'll try to respond to your requests by tonight.

As for your notion that more than the right-wing was involved in the JFK murder, I'm inclined to agree -- with qualifications. I've been following Larry Hancock's work more closely, and it is clear that General Edward Lansdale and his contacts in the CIA had a hand in the planning -- outside of Dallas.

The autopsy, the Secret Service, the limo, the press -- were all handled at a higher level than Dallas. However, when it comes to Dallas, it remains my opinion that the right-wing ran the show -- not the FBI, not the CIA, not some rogue Pentagon hawks.

The right-wing characterizes Dallas, and the right-wing led the ideological attack on JFK in the public imagination. The right-wing was also a lightning rod for every wacko in America.

One character who practically lived with Edwin Walker in Dallas was Robert Allen Surrey, his publisher, and also the publisher for the ANP (American Nazi Party) -- ultra-right-wing, and supremely motivated to stop JFK in his tracks.

The rightist group, Friends of Walker, rallied true believers. I want to count how many DPD officers were also members of the Friends of Walker.

As for shooters -- it's no accident that we find DPD officers on the grassy knoll in those same moments. William Turner wrote that the average DPD officer was a member of the John Birch Society, the White Citizens' Council or the KKK. That's tremendous motivation.

What the DPD and right-wing leaders in Dallas offered any CIA plot was a "Dallas Intelligence Network" (to use Larry's wording). Knowing the terrain of Dallas was indispensible -- utterly indispensible. The DPD would be first in line with that knowledge.

Anyway, Jim, I'll try my best to reply with those personal papers from Walker ASAP,

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edited>

Edited April 8, 2014 by Paul Trejo

[Jim Root]

Thank you

I sent you a note with my email address

Jim

[Paul Trejo]

OK, Jim, I think this may be what you're looking for.

Here is a link to the personal papers of Edwin Walker, specifically his official 1959 resignation from the US Army -- denied.

http://www.pet880.com/images/19611104_Walker_Resignations.JPG

Also, here is (what I could salvage of) a multi-page, hand-written letter from Edwin (Ted) Walker to his brother Frank in January of 1960. I think this is the one you had in mind; please let me know.

http://www.pet880.com/images/19600101_Ted_to_Frank_02.JPG

http://www.pet880.com/images/19600101_Ted_to_Frank_03.JPG

http://www.pet880.com/images/19600101_Ted_to_Frank_04.JPG

http://www.pet880.com/images/19600101_Ted_to_Frank_05.JPG

http://www.pet880.com/images/19600101_Ted_to_Frank_06.JPG

http://www.pet880.com/images/19600101_Ted_to_Frank_07.JPG

http://www.pet880.com/images/19600101_Ted_to_Frank_09.JPG

http://www.pet880.com/images/19600101_Ted_to_Frank_10.JPG

http://www.pet880.com/images/19600101_Ted_to_Frank_11.JPG

Also, Jim, you were thinking of a letter from Edwin (Ted) Walker to his brother Frank in "October". I think you might mean October 1960. If so, then perhaps this is the multi-part letter you might be considering:

http://www.pet880.com/images/19601005_Ted_to_Frank_1.JPG

http://www.pet880.com/images/19601005_Ted_to_Frank_2.JPG

http://www.pet880.com/images/19601005_Ted_to_Frank_3.JPG

http://www.pet880.com/images/19601005_Ted_to_Frank_4.JPG

Notice that Walker was in conflict with the Overseas Weekly newspaper of the US Army already in October, 1960, although they would not publish anything devastatingly negative about him until April 1961.

Also, here is a letter from Ted to Frank in January, 1961 (sorry about the JPG label -- this is still a work in progress):

http://www.pet880.com/images/19601005_Ted_to_Frank_5.JPG

http://www.pet880.com/images/19601005_Ted_to_Frank_6.JPG

Finally, I can only keep these links up for a limited time, so be apprised.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited April 9, 2014 by Paul Trejo

[Jim Root]

I am intrigued by the resignation letters that were in Walker's files.

First: It is reported to be "The Official Defense Department Record" but it is printed by "American Eagle Publishing Co." complete with address and ZIP code. ZIP codes did not come into use till 1963 some time after these letters were written.

Second: These same two letters do not appear in Walker's Cullum File from West Point although that may or may not be unusual.

Third: While the second resignation says that it was accepted and an Honorable Discharge was given.....Walker lost his pension when he left the Army....not sure that goes along with an Honorable discharge.(although years later he did get his pension approved after several denials)

Thoughts?????

Jim Root

[Paul Trejo]

I am intrigued by the resignation letters that were in Walker's files.

First: It is reported to be "The Official Defense Department Record" but it is printed by "American Eagle Publishing Co." complete with address and ZIP code. ZIP codes did not come into use till 1963 some time after these letters were written.

Second: These same two letters do not appear in Walker's Cullum File from West Point although that may or may not be unusual.

Third: While the second resignation says that it was accepted and an Honorable Discharge was given.....Walker lost his pension when he left the Army....not sure that goes along with an Honorable discharge.(although years later he did get his pension approved after several denials)

Thoughts?????

Jim Root

Jim,

(1) Clearly Edwin Walker made a "true copy" of his first resignation letter that he sent to the Defense Department -- and that is what made it official. I actually trust Walker's sense of official records.

At the same time, Walker was making a flysheet for his political campaigns -- he was telling his fan base the truth about himself -- facts they could look up if they wanted. So, he combined his first resignation letter (which was rejected by Eisenhower's administration) with his second resignation letter (which was approved by JFK's administration).

Both of the resignation letters were true and accurate, but they were reprinted in that format to fit both of them on a single page. Then Walker added his own contact information at the bottom.

Why did he do it? He wanted to show his street credentials -- he wanted to show that he was a critic of the Communist Conspiracy in Washington DC going back to 1959. He wanted to accuse Eisenhower of being a Communist; part of the very "conspiracy" that moved Walker to quit the US Army.

(2) I think that West Point, which is concerned with graduations and careers, was not so much interested in scandals such as quitting the US Army. Quitting is not the same as retirement. Walker had 30 years of highly decorated experience in the US Army as part of the greatest generation. He clearly deserved his US Army Pension.

Didn't Walker know that even if he wanted to be the most radical, extreme rightist in the USA, that he still deserved to have his US Army Pension? He seems unclear about it.

There is no logical reason for Walker's quitting -- it was a slap in the face of the Eisenhower administration in 1959, and it was a slap in the face of the JFK administration in 1961. That is the only explanation, I suspect -- it was a political move.

(3) I believe that a resignation cannot be "dishonorable" in any military sense. It is not the same as treason, or of cowardice, or of defection, or being AWOL for six months, or even of "conduct unbecoming an officer." It is simply a personal and political choice.

It's so rare and bizarre, in fact, that not one single US General except Edwin Walker had ever resigned from the US Army in the entire 20th century.

In any case, although Walker gave up all rights to his Army Pension (which was substantial in those days) his termination was still "honorable" because his service record itself was unblemished.

It was a political act. It was almost insane. Why did Walker do it? The only rational explanation is that he did it for political publicity -- feeling assured at the time that H.L. Hunt could help him become Governor of Texas and then eventually President of the USA. (The Pecos Daily News of 14 Mar 1962 suggested that this was Walker's original plan).

Walker realized his mistake soon after he lost his bid for Texas Governor in May 1962. He made one last ditch attempt for political super-stardom with the Ole Miss race riot in September 1962.

When he was acquitted by an all-white Grand Jury in Mississippi for his role in the Ole Miss race riot, he made a pact with two attorneys -- Clyde Watts and Robert Morris -- to sue every US newspaper that told the truth about Walker's instigation of that riot.

If they had won every case they stood to win $30 million. (Which in the 1960's was worth ten times more than today, adjusted for inflation). They would be satisfied with ten percent of that.

In fact, by the end of 1965 they had amassed $3 million in court winnings. So, Walker did not think to request his Army Pension to be restored at that time. Only after Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren heard the AP appeal and sent Walker away empty-handed in 1967 did Walker panic and begin to cry for his Army Pension.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited August 13, 2014 by Paul Trejo

[Jim Root]

Thanks for your response Paul.

To carry the discussion further you point out that his political campaigns were in 1962 yet the resignation flyer (with ZIP code) was 1963 or later....perhaps after the assassination of JFK. While he was still doing the speaker circuit his political aspirations had, I believe, been checked as you suggest and his attempts for "political super-stardom" dashed.

The "Muzzling the Military" hearings in Congress were political and Walker's refusal to receive a pension appears to be very political. Walker becomes the radical right winger in the light that he is now viewed. He also has distanced himself in every sense from the US Government.....that is really something for a man that attained the rank of Major General to do. Prior to this time he had successfully ran the Pentagon's Greek Desk during the US involvement in the Greek Civil War. Walker had been the US Point man in the First Straits of Taiwan Crisis, he had taken the surrender of German Troops in Norway at the end of the WWII. As head of the Arkansas Military District (and I could use a little clarification on this....my information came from a local newspaper clipping from Texas) played a lead role in the Army Ballistic Missile Program, etc., etc., etc.

Walker was a man who always followed orders! Walker was a man whose military career seems to place him at the center of much intrigue but, at a particular point in time, something changes in the life of Edwin Walker. It is the timing of this radical change that I question.....

In my dealings with GP Hemming he seemed to sense some of the same things. While he never answered the specific question, I believed that Hemming was recruited into intelligence work by Walker (I believe around 1954). It was only after asking this question that Hemming began communicating with me and providing some interesting information. Hemming did relate to me that Walker was, to his knowledge, involved with the infiltration of Lee Harvey Oswald into the Soviet Union. IF true then the new radical Walker emerges shortly thereafter.....and this radicalization becomes very apparent when Oswald begins his attempts to return to the United States from the Soviet Union. Was there a fear on the part of highly placed people in US Intelligence that Oswald, if he returned to the United States could identify Walker as a person who had helped him to enter the Soviet Union (I have written many posts in the past about the potential Walker-Oswald connection and how it COULD have occurred).

Oswald's own description of Walker as the leader of a bad organization that does not want peace between the Soviet Union and the United States differs from the public persona of Walker the anti-segregationist leading riots at Mississippi State. Did Oswald know more about Walker than what many believe is the obvious persona that was been built up around Walker in these critical months leading to the assassination of Kennedy? Did Oswald have a first hand motive for wanting to see Walker die?

I found it interesting that in two letters to his brother Frank, Walker asks him to save those letters, then apparently retrieves them and includes them in his records. While that may be much ado about nothing......how many more letters to his brother are in the Walker files? If there are a lot then no big deal if only these few.....was Walker writing for effect?

I do not have answers to my questions but am interested in hearing the thoughts of a person that has gotten much deeper into Walker's papers than I have had a chance to.

Jim Root

[Paul Trejo]

Jim, you're right to note that Walker continued to boast about his opposition to Eisenhower even after his chances at a mainstream political career were gone. However -- he probably still kept the hope of a specialist political career -- as a spokesperson for the far right wing.

Remember that during the early 1960's, some Democrats were planning to split off and form the Dixiecrats. The newspapers of Kent Courtney still called for a Third Party, and also called for General Walker to lead that Party -- even though most Americans thought Walker was a crackpot.

I'm glad you're familiar with the "Muzzling the Military" hearings and the Senate Subcommittee on Military Preparedness -- because rumors of Walker's alleged "paranoia" began during that period.

You're right to exclaim about Walker's far jump from a US General to an anti-Establishment right-winger. And yet, in those days of the Cold War, it might have seemed like a clever strategy to some folks in the South. It was in 1963, remember, that George Wallace came out with this famous slogan, "Segregation Today, Segregation Tomorrow, Segregation Forever!"

Now, you note that Edwin Walker might have had intelligence duties in the US Army (e.g. the Greek Desk). I can accept that, because Walker was the leader of a Canadian/US special forces unit before World War Two. He was gung-ho.

Walker was an expert in ballistics operations. He served brilliantly in WW2. Also, he took "Heartbreak Ridge" in Korea, specifically by bombing his target for two weeks straight, 24 hours a day.

Eisenhower rewarded and challenged Walker with his role in Arkansas, racially integrating the Little Rock High School. Walker did not object to racial integration as such, he said, but he did object to using Federal Troops to push US citizens around. He asked to be excused, but Eisenhower insisted.

Walker did his duty brilliantly again, and he stayed in Little Rock for parts of three years (1957-1959), but really about 24 months.

During Walker's stay in Little Rock, he was the special target of right-wing Evangelists from B.J. Hargis to H.L. Hunt. It was Robert Welch with his John Birch Society who finally converted Walker.

You question the timing of this radical change. I would like to quote from the Pecos Daily News of 14 Mar 1962. Walker kept this Editorial among his personal papers.

The whole text is here: http://www.pet880.com/images/19620314_Fall_of_Walker.JPG

Here is the excerpt:

"The strange, poisonous bite of the John Birch Society infection forced him out of the Army for disloyalty to his Commander-in-Chief and inability to accept orders from his superior officers. The Birch infection dumped him into the Texas political scene, where he filed himself as an unwanted candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor...Now neither Party will accept him as a Presidential nominee -- quite obviously his overly ambitious ultimate goal."

In my estimation, this Editorial is very close to the truth. The turning-point of this loyal US General was his "infection" by the John Birch Society, and its disloyal doctrine that US Presidents were Communist.

Despite Walker's shrewd sense and street-smarts, he was not an intellectual. This was fairly common in the World War Two period -- intellectuals were rare in the USA. Walker was a West Point graduate -- but actually he graduated at the bottom 10% of his class -- that is, with a D- GPA. He was no valedictorian.

Walker excelled as a man of action. He lagged in the realm of ideas.

The John Birch Society became the highest intellectual achievement that Walker would ever attain. He practically worshipped Robert Welch, and followed the rules of the John Birch Society religiously.

Was Walker involved in Intellience circles during World War Two and possibly Korea? I have no doubt that he was -- but at the level of Operations -- of taking orders and executing them quickly and accurately. He was excellent in that regard. He was fearless and a leader of men in that regard.

However, Walker fell far short of the intellectual demands of the CIA or even the FBI. He was misled, IMHO, by the encouragement of H.L. Hunt, Billy James Hargis, Kent Courtney and Robert Welch.

Walker copyrighted six speeches, basically all during his first three months after leaving the Army. He gave the same six speeches over a hundred times. His first several months of speaking, one should note, were roaring successes.

Walker was a hero to many right-wingers from start to finish. Despite the fact that his speeches were fairly boring and his speaking skills were fairly slow -- we must remember that he preached to the Choir -- to true believers -- and they couldn't get enough. Here's a very brief example on YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYyONwsHqbw]

Walker would receive thunderous applause every minute during his speeches, and a standing ovation every ten minutes (or more) without fail. His audiences loved him -- they really went wild for him. (In the movie, Seven Days in May, Burt Lancaster played a US General whipping up crowds to make himself President, and there was no doubt in those days that he was playing General Edwin Walker.)

All this early adulation, from December 1961 through April 1962 expanded Edwin Walker's ego like a blimp. He began to believe Kent Courtney's propaganda, calling for Edwin Walker for US President!

I have little doubt that Walker was very close to Gerry Patrick Hemming -- and I'm not surprised that Hemming warmed up to your questions when you mentioned his relationship with Walker. (We should recall that Hemming was a Neo-Nazi starting in high-school. The NAACP was virtually Communist to Hemming.)

On the other hand, I think Oswald's relationship with Walker was far simpler -- what Oswald wrote about Walker should be taken at face value, IMHO. Most importantly, Lee Harvey Oswald looked up to George De Mohrenschildt, the elitist liberal, for his assessment of General Edwin Walker. This becomes clear in George's 1978 manuscript, I'm a Patsy!; they would both joke and call Walker, "General Fokker."

Best regards,
--Paul Trejo

Edited April 10, 2014 by Paul Trejo

[Robert Howard]

If I remember correctly, no one put a gun to Walker's head to distribute John Birch Society material to his troops.

If anyone remembers when General Edwin Walker testified before the Warren Commission, he was one of a handful of persons, who came to testify who actually seemed to enjoy delving into the concept of a conspiracy regarding the assassination, albeit with the imprimatur that said conspiracy was left wing in its roots, he even delved into the death of George Deen, who had died
before the assassination of JFK in Dallas in a fire. While I have arguably made enough contributions here on the Forum to participate, I still have a few things to contribute.

The following document, from the HSCA era, actually specifically mentions, if I am not mistaken, the same George Deen....Imagine that!
https://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=77957

For details regarding George Deen's October '63 death before the JFK Assassination see

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=14340&page=2

If one is open to suggestion, my premise about the document is that it reveals there was a mini-Cold-War going on in Dallas, not unlike the global Cold War taking place throughout
the world of that time on a global scale. The "Communist informant" who appears somewhere in the Warren Commission documents is also in this document, as are very many familiar names
to even those who are even amateur historians, all on the left. If someone was more erudite than myself at genealogy research, they might look into Bessie Byrd, even I would like
to know if she was related to D.H. Harold Byrd, the CAP guy. Remember Frontline's infamous photo of Oswald and Ferrie in the same photograph, isn't it amazing that something
that was once a really big deal, is now pretty much a yawner?

Another name on the document list is Raible.
Those who remember GME's book "A Certain Arrogance" would do well to be familiar with its contents, and conclusions. While Raible is not mentioned in Evica's book, the Unitarian Church
to which Raible spent his life dedicated to is. In the book Unitarianism in Dallas: 1899-1968, considerable space is devoted to Rev. Robert Jules Raible, who, according to the book, "moved to Dallas with his family in late August, 1942, preached his first sermon as Dallas minister on September 13."


His wife, Miss Mildred Galt...."had been born in Japan and reared in China, and was the daughter of Congregational missionaries," also according to the book.

After years of studying Lee Harvey Oswald and Cold War history, you discover that Oswald wasn't the first person that an intelligence agency, and/or its leaders threw someone
"under the bus."
See Varian Fry for one, Evica knew about Fry....and solving JFK riddles

As far as Edwin Walker, he had his little traveling band touring the country with Billy James Hargis, when JFK was assassinated, Walker and Hargis and their ilk are still very much represented in the America of 2014. The imaginary demons are still on the American political left, and the guys that wear white still push the fear button on a daily basis, whether
the imaginary scandals are a total deception or a symptom of a country that has lost its way, is, in the eyes of the beholder.

Something tells me none of you are familiar with this document either, and if you think the Catherwood Foundation is irrelevant to the JFK assassination, you would be very much mistaken.

https://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=10702&relPageId=60

Edited April 13, 2014 by Robert Howard

[Paul Trejo]

If anyone remembers when General Edwin Walker testified before the Warren Commission, he was one of a handful of persons, who came to testify who actually seemed to enjoy delving into the concept of a conspiracy regarding the assassination, albeit with the imprimatur that said conspiracy was left wing in its roots, he even delved into the death of George Deen, who had died before the assassination of JFK in Dallas in a fire. While I have arguably made enough contributions here on the Forum to participate, I still have a few things to contribute.

The following document, from the HSCA era, actually specifically mentions, if I am not mistaken, the same George Deen....Imagine that!

https://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=77957

If one is open to suggestion, my premise about the document is that it reveals there was a mini-Cold-War going on in Dallas, not unlike the global Cold War taking place throughout the world of that time on a global scale. The "Communist informant" who appears somewhere in the Warren Commission documents is also in this document, as are very many familiar names to even those who are even amateur historians, all on the left.

...

As far as Edwin Walker, he had his little traveling band touring the country with Billy James Hargis, when JFK was assassinated, Walker and Hargis and their ilk are still very much represented in the America of 2014. The imaginary demons are still on the American political left, and the guys that wear white still push the fear button on a daily basis, whether the imaginary scandals are a total deception or a symptom of a country that has lost its way, is, in the eyes of the beholder.

Something tells me none of you are familiar with this document either, and if you think the Catherwood Foundation is irrelevant to the JFK assassination, you would be very much mistaken.

https://www.maryferr...02&relPageId=60

Thank you, Robert, for sharing this viewpoint and these resources.

The document that you cited from the HSCA era does seem to mention the same George Deen referred to by resigned General Edwin Walker during his Warren Commission testimony. Walker was even then, trying to propose that the Communists killed JFK (mainly for the purpose of blaming the right-wing for the murder, and further dividing the USA).

In that document, which is an example of the FBI spying on the Communist Party in the USA (CP, USA), a memo was to be sent out to these three hundred CPUSA members. The memo was forwarded by a Spanish-speaking member, who advised the Dallas recipient of the memo (Dan Yarbrough) to ensure that George Deen of Dallas also received a copy. The FBI memo is dated November, 1960.

You suggest, Robert, that the Cold War was alive and well in Dallas in the early 1960's, and the right-wing (with help from the FBI) was happy to spy on the CPUSA activities in Dallas. I would agree entirely.

In the earliest days of the JFK murder, before the Warren Commission was established, the rumors that flew around in US newspapers would alternatively blame the extreme right-wing and the extreme left-wing.

Even among the right-wing, it made very little sense that a Communist like Lee Harvey Oswald would kill a Communist like JFK.

So, the right-wing was a frequent target in the US press. Ex-Generl Edwin Walker went on a TV news program to announce that Communists were trying to blame the Dallas right-wing. This announcement is available today on YouTube here: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx_-K4jCpm8]

Harry Dean once showed me a vinyl LP record he retained from the early 1960's, of Billy James Hargis, pretending to interview Lee Harvey Oswald. Hargis somehow obtained the New Orleans WDSU radio broadcast of Lee Harvey Oswald of 9/19/1963 debating with Carlos Bringuier and Ed Butler. Hargis edited the original tape by using his own voice to replace the voices of the interviewers (Bill Slatter and William Stuckey) -- so that the listener might believe that Billy James Hargis himself was interviewing Lee Harvey Oswald.

Then Hargis added his commentary at the end, concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald was a Marxist-Leninist by his own admission, and therefore we have final proof that "the Communists murdered JFK." Hargis was clearly reaching.

I tend to agree with your politics on this matter, Robert.

I'd like to add, further, that the efforts of the right-wing in defense of Edwin Walker were uniquely remarkable. Although perhaps most Americans thought it fitting that JFK and RFK would remit Ex-General Edwin Walker to an insane asylum after he led the racial riot at Ole Miss in late 1962, we should recall that the John Birch Society wrote a book on the topic (The Invasion of Mississippi by Earl Lively, Jr., 1963) blaming JFK and the Federal troops for the violence at Ole Miss, and claiming that Edwin Walker was merely there trying to "calm things down."

Anybody, however, who had heard General Walker on the radio and TV in the days before the riots, knew that Walker called for "ten thousand strong, from every state in the Union," to bring their flags, their skillets and their tents to Mississippi to confront JFK and the Federal Troops. The FBI traced dozens of calls and vehicles streaming into Mississippi from coast to coast -- many with trunks full of weapons -- manned by former US Army troops who had served under General Walker for many years until 1961.

It is still amazing to me today that General Walker was completely acquitted of all charges in the Ole Miss riot.

Either the right-wing or the left-wing was going to be blamed -- because this was perhaps the peak of the Cold War. In my opinion, the JFK plotters wanted first and foremost to spur the USA into invading Cuba and killing Fidel Castro. (This would have been the right-wing dream.)

The fact that the Warren Commission did not move in their direction convinces me that those who plotted to murder JFK were not the same people who plotted to cover-up the truth about the JFK murder. They worked at odds. This is a minority opinon, granted, but I think the politics (and the evidence) will bear this out.

Finally, regarding that second FBI memo from the Mary Ferrell site that you shared, Robert, I would add that Edwin Walker did have among his personal papers a booklet bearing the title, "What is Counterinsurgency?" which he himself wrote. It was, as I recall, made available to the members of his group, the Friends of Walker.

It seems that W.T. Caley, who accidentally told FBI agent Louis Nicoletti about "Counter-Insurgency", was probably a member of the Friends of Walker group -- or knew a member.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited April 14, 2014 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

I'm currently looking even deeper into the Edwin Walker theory of the JFK murder, and here's where it's leading me:

1. Walker had connections to the DRE, and even with Carlos Bringuier, directly. Bringuier appeared on the radio with Lee Harvey Oswald, as part of a deliberate effort to frame Oswald as a Communist supporting Fidel Castro.

1.1. Yes, I'm proposing that Oswald was cooperating with Bringuier. Bringuier was working with Guy Banister, Clay Shaw, David Ferrie and Ed Butler to "sheep-dip" Oswald as a Castro-loving Communist in order to frame Oswald for the JFK murder.

1.2. Oswald was ignorant of that plot. Instead, Oswald was led to believe that he could get an instant Visa into Cuba if he was an FPCC officer. So, by using "street credentials" in newspaper, police records, radio and TV, he could convince the 'stupid' clerks at the Cuban consulate in Mexico City to give him an instant visa.

1.3. The evidence appears to show that Oswald believed this, although his handlers knew it to be false. They were "punking" Oswald, and probably laughing their heads off back in New Orleans while Oswald was in Mexico City.

1.4. While in Mexico City, the rogue CIA member of the plot, David Morales, used his crew to impersonate Lee Oswald and Silvia Duran in a call from the Cuban consulate to the USSR consulate, knowing full well that the conversation would be bugged. The impersonators fooled the USSR consulate clerk into saying the name, "Valery Kostikov," a known KGB agent. The intent was to solidify Oswald's image as a Castro-loving, Communist defector and collaborator with the KGB.

1.5. (This part of the plot would backfire on David Morales, since his superiors in the CIA, who knew nothing about Morales' plot, started a mole-hunt inside the CIA, looking for a mole, since they knew for a fact that the impersonators were inside people. Bill Simpich proved very well that there was indeed a mole-hunt. This is the best evidence I know to show that the official CIA was not part of the JFK murder plot, although they took a leading role in the JFK cover-up.)

2. Before Walker instigated the riots at Ole Miss in 9/1962, he wrote an open letter to JFK about the crisis which can be read at this URL:

http://www.pet880.com/images/19620926_EAW_Open_Letter.JPG

2.1. Notice that this letter, on the very eve of the Ole Miss riots, complains far more about Cuba than about Ole Miss.

3. Walker, after he was acquitted by a Grand Jury in 1/1963 for his role in the Ole Miss riots, in which hundreds were wounded and two were killed, decided to take a cross-country speaking tour with Billy James Hargis, entitled, the Midnight Ride.

4. One source claims that the main theme of Walker's speeches on the Midnight Ride was CUBA.

5. If so, then the Cuban Exiles in Miami, Louisiana and Dallas would look to Edwin Walker as a LEADER.

6. Walker was indeed a leader among the ultra-right-wing. Even though he was washed up for mainstream politics, Walker still had a loyal following among fanatics in rightist causes -- like the Cuban Exiles on the one hand, but also like the John Birch Society, the Minutemen, the White Citizens Councils on the other hand.

7. In the world of politics at this time, Americans would be the leaders, and Cuban Exiles would be the followers.

8. The murder of JFK in Dallas requires a Dallas leadership. Even Larry Hancock admitted that the CIA could not and would not go into Dallas without a Dallas coordinator. (Yet I disagree with Larry Hancock when he names Jack Ruby as that coordinator.)

9. I am now looking at a 2009 book, entitled, A DEEPER, DARKER TRUTH, by Don T. Phillips. This book tells of advanced photographic technology being used to analyze photographs of Dealey Plaza taken on 11/22/1963.

9.1. This book suggests that the Grassy Knoll shooter, known as the "badge man," can be shown to be, by sensitive technology breakthroughs in photo-analysis, none other than J.D. Tippit.

10. If J.D. Tippit was a grassy knoll shooter, then we have more reason to believe young Mike Robinson who overheard DPD officer Roscoe White confess to killing DPD officer J.D. Tippit in cold blood.

11. This also raises the specter of Ricky White's personal claim that his father, DPD officer Roscoe White, was one of the grassy knoll shooters as well.

12. The common link between Roscoe White, J.D. Tippit and Ex-General Edwin Walker was the ultra-right-wing.

13. The 1971 book by William Turner (Power on the Right) says that all DPD officers in 1963 were unofficially required to be members of the John Birch Society, the Minutemen or the KKK, and preferably all three, to qualify for a job on the DPD Force.

14. It was admitted about Roscoe White that he was a member of the Minutemen and the John Birchers, as I recall.

15. I haven't read anything about J.D. Tippit's political affiliation. I would appreciate more information on this topic.

16. In Dallas, the most popular ultra-right-wing leader was Ex-General Edwin Walker.

The evidence continues to mount up that portrays Edwin Walker at the center of the Dallas plot, which was an ultra-rightist plot that engaged Cuban Exiles and their supporters in the mammoth effort to murder JFK in public.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited July 31, 2014 by Paul Trejo

[Larry Hancock]

Paul, since you refer to me by name...just a minor tweak. My position has always been that a tactical team composed primarily of Cuban exiles and associated individuals - all linked to Morales and Robertson and traveling from the Miami area - would have needed one or more contacts in Dallas to familiarize themselves with the city, with a good number of local details ranging from traffic patterns to details about local law enforcement. As a part of their preparations they might well have determined that it would be useful to have certain controllable local assets for minor tasks, say police or security officers. There are a hundred different things that a local contact might be asked to do in support of a team coming from out of town - but that team will have its own chain of command and tactical coordinator. You can use "coordinator" however you want but in my terms I refer to a "tactical coordinator" who is a member of the team and has to be, no one else would be trusted. You can bring Walker in however you wish but I have to note that my view of Ruby would have been as a local source of information, perhaps a low level facilitator for certain contacts but in no sense a "coordinator" and would have been thought of at best as hired help. What Jack might have thought he was doing is another matter entirely and most likely would have depended on information relied to him by cut outs leading back to Roselli.