Edwin Walker

[Paul Trejo]

As today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the USA, I'd like to say a few words about the JFK assassination, the Civil Rights Movement, and Ex-General Edwin Walker with regard to various political events of 1963.

IMHO, Edwin Walker came into the sharpest direct conflict with JFK on 30 September 1962 at Ole Miss University in Oxford Mississippi, when JFK sent thousands of Federal Troops to enforce the rights of Black American James Meredith to attend college there, while Edwin Walker publicly called for thousands of angry protesters from around the USA to oppose those Federal Troops, and to speak up for the States Rights of Governor Ross Barnett who insisted on keeping Ole Miss all-white.

At those riots, hundreds were wounded and two were killed.

At issue was the 1957 Brown Decision pronounced by Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren, mandating the racial integration of all Public Schools in the USA. The South had resisted this longer than all other US States, but Mississippi had resisted it longer than any other State.

In 1957 the White Citizens Councils were born to call for the impeachment of Earl Warren. They got traction mainly in the South. In the rest of the USA, by 1959, their cause was taken up by the John Birch Society, along with their most enduring slogan, "Impeach Earl Warren!"

Still, many people are unaware of the back-story. James Meredith didn't act alone, and Edwin Walker and his supporters knew full well that James Meredith didn't act alone. The NAACP energetically supported James Meredith in many local and State court houses, and among the NAACP, nobody was more active in the James Meredith case than the dynamic Medgar Evers.

Medgar Evers was an African-American, World War II veteran and civil rights activist from Mississippi. In 1962 Evers was a professional field secretary for the NAACP, and James Meredith was his biggest case.

Many in the NAACP advised Evers to drop Meredith as a client, because Meredith identified himself more closely with Native Americans than with his Black contemporaries, yet Medgar Evers was confident that James Meredith brought a special energy to the movement that was difficult to obtain anywhere else.

When the morning of 1 October 1962 dawned to reveal that Edwin Walker had been utterly defeated in his efforts to prevent James Meredith from registering at Ole Miss, Edwin Walker knew that James Meredith was not the only winner of that fight -- but Medgar Evers was also a big winner.

In fact, Medgar Evers was considered by the American right-wing to be even more dangerous than James Meredith, because Meredith had finished fighting, having obtained his goal, while Evers was encouraged by that victory to fight even more stridently to promote more Black Americans, and to break down the color barriers at American colleges.

Edwin Walker was ever mindful of Medgar Evers and the NAACP on his horizon. For example, after Edwin Walker was acquitted in January, 1963 by a Mississippi Grand Jury of any wrongdoing at Ole Miss University, Walker and the racist Reverend Billy James Hargis began a coast-to-coast speaking tour from February 1963 through early April 1963, to denounce JFK and the Civil Rights movement.

At every stop in their tour, the NAACP picketed outside.

The NAACP did not picket because Walker and Hargis complained of Communism in the USA, rather, the NAACP picketed because Walker and Hargis publicly accused the Civil Rights Movement in the USA of being Communist. This was the very strategy of the White Citizens Councils and the John Birch Society. The USA paranoia of Communism was exploited in order to suppress the Civil Rights Movement.

Edwin Walker was at the forefront of that exploitation. This was the substance of his many speeches to the White Citizens Councils throughout the South. Even J. Edgar Hoover had been hoodwinked to join in that deception.

Therefore, we should not be surprised to learn that the American extreme right-wing had targeted Medgar Evers for assassination. The signal came when JFK made his famous Civil Rights Speech of 11 June 1963.

For those readers who may have forgotten the content of JFK's speech on that evening, here is the full speech on YouTube: []http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNv_WqZGTCs]

For our purposes here, we ought to remember that immediately after this JFK speech, at around midnight, Medgar Evers was fatally shot in the back at his home driveway in Mississippi. White Citizens Council member, Byron De La Beckwith, was charged with the murder ten days later, however the all-white jury became deadlocked.

Another all-white jury was again deadlocked in 1964. Finally, in 1994, Beckwith was convicted. There is a 1996, movie, Ghosts of Mississippi, starring Whoopie Goldberg and Alec Baldwin (with Beckwith portrayed by James Woods) which dramatizes the final trial.

Anyway, getting back to the topic of Edwin Walker, it is not very well-known that as the Warren Commission was starting up in early 1964, Byron De La Beckwith was facing court hearings in Mississippi. At that courthouse in January 1964, news reporters recorded visits to Beckwith by former Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett, along with Ex-General Edwin Walker -- offering comfort and encouragement to Beckwith (who was set free by the courts without a conviction in that same year).

Here is a bit of Civil Rights history on MLK Day that we should bear in mind when considering the JFK assassination.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 19, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Jon G. Tidd]

Paul Trejo,

Thanks for the history lesson. Very valuable.

Question: Was Edwin Walker a figurehead in the anti-civil rights movement? Who may have been used. Or a leader? Who formulated strategy and gave orders.

[Ernie Lazar]

UPDATE:

I am happy to report that this morning, Internet Archive uploaded all of the FBI files which I sent to them last November and during the first week of January 2015.

The Internet Archive webpage for my Collection is here:

https://archive.org/details/lazarfoia?and[]=mediatype%3A%22collection%22

Among the new files which may interest those participating in this thread and in the previous "Memoirs" thread regarding Harry Dean are the files listed below.

As an added feature, Internet Archive has converted all the pdf files I sent into searchable documents. You can read a file online by using the arrows to scroll through each page OR you can download the entire pdf file if you want to save it.

IN ADDITION: I have prepared a new, expanded, annotated edition of my Finding Aid to the FBI files in my Collection which I attach. Aside from listing and describing files, I also have added several entirely new sections to help researchers -- such as a chart which lists/defines FBI abbreviations, acronyms, terminology and form numbers.

NOTE: The Finding Aid includes a few files which are not currently visible on Internet Archive. They will not be uploaded until next week -- such as the 100+ sections of Martin Luther King's FBI-HQ main file and one cross-references file on Joseph Milteer.

You are receiving an advance copy of this Finding Aid which will not be in general circulation or posted online until next week so those files are included in the new Finding Aid.

SOME KEY FBI FILES:

GUY BANISTER (x-refs)

https://archive.org/search.php?query=FOIA%3A%20Banister%2C%20Guy

HARRY J. DEAN [Note: When NARA copied the serials in these files, they did so in reverse sequential order]

CIA FILE: https://archive.org/details/foia_Dean_Harry-CIA-1

FBI-HQ FILE: https://archive.org/details/foia_Dean_Harry-HQ-1

FBI-LOS ANGELES FILE: https://archive.org/details/foia_Dean_Harry-Los_Angeles-1

GUY LOUIS GALBADON

https://archive.org/search.php?query=FOIA%3A%20Galbadon%2C%20Guy

JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY

https://archive.org/search.php?query=FOIA%3A+John+Birch+Society&sort=-publicdate

JOHN H. ROUSSELOT

https://archive.org/search.php?query=FOIA%3A%20Rousselot%2C%20John

EDWIN A. WALKER

https://archive.org/search.php?query=FOIA%3A%20Walker%2C%20Edwin

FINDING AID-NEW 01-21-15.pdf

Edited January 21, 2015 by Ernie Lazar

[Paul Trejo]

Paul Trejo,

Thanks for the history lesson. Very valuable.

Question: Was Edwin Walker a figurehead in the anti-civil rights movement? Who may have been used. Or a leader? Who formulated strategy and gave orders.

Well, Jon, I take it that you intend your question in the context of the JFK assassination. You seem to be asking whether Edwin Walker was "merely" a figurehead in the Anti-Civil Rights movement, who could have been exploited by more powerful people in the Anti-Civil Rights movement, or whether Walker had leadership capabilities enough to formulate strategies and give orders.

My findings so far suggest (along with Jim Root) that Edwin Walker was intellectually challenged, and unaccustomed to strategy -- he was a tactician and an executive of a particularly high caliber -- that is, he took orders and he carried them out with a high degree of efficiency and success.

Therefore, given that scenario, one might hastily conclude that Edwin Walker could not have planned the execution of JFK in Dallas on 11/22/1963.

I think that would be too hasty, however and I think that Ex-General Edwin Walker played a far more active role in the preparation and execution of the JFK assassination than any writer in the past 50 years has ever credited to him. Only distant observers such as Jack Ruby and Harry Dean have so far suggested that Edwin Walker played a major role in the JFK murder -- that is, in the literature. Dr. David Wrone says that among people he knew on that day, Edwin Walker and the JBS were immediate suspects.

First, let me qualify my phrase, "intellectually challenged." After perusing the 90 boxes of personal papers of Ex-General Edwin Walker which are stored at the Dolph Briscoe Center in Austin, Texas, I learned that Edwin Walker graduated West Point in the bottom 10% of his class. He was alwaya a man of ACTION, and was not a reader of a wide range of heady literature.

One can also see from his personal papers that Edwin Walker did not keep lofty books in his library -- he read mainly newspapers and magazines, and mostly from extreme-right wing publishers. He kept articles that portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt as a Communist, for example, or Martin Luther King as a Communist. This is what we find in his personal papers. There is a lot of JBS literature, but also literature from the White Citizens Councils and related groups.

It seems also, from his personal correspondence with Robert Welch (founder of the JBS), that his intellectual limit was reached with the works of Robert Welch. Edwin Walker placed Robert Welch on a pedestal, and would probably do anything that Robert Welch suggested that he do. Walker joined the JBS in 1959, and never joined any other political group, to the best of my knowledge.

Having said that, I think we can completely stop looking for any further "leaders" of Edwin Walker than that. Walker did not join any other political groups. Even though he was invited to be a KKK Grand Dragon, he turned down the offer. Here is what Walker wrote sometime in the 1960's:

http://www.pet880.com/images/19660606_Walker_Joins_Nothing.JPG

I think Walker would no longer take orders from the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- because his resignation from the US Army was a hostile act, and he regarded the US Military to be hostage to the Communists -- as Robert Welch had said. We know Walker would no longer take orders from the US President, whom Walker regarded as a Communist -- as Robert Welch had said.

In other words -- Edwin Walker was strictly a follower of Robert Welch. Nobody else. Now -- Robert Welch did not give military or paramilitary orders (as far as we know today). For example, Robert Welch did not order Edwin Walker to lead a racial riot at Ole Miss University on 30 September 1963.

HOWEVER -- in my opinion, Edwin Walker *interpreted* the words of Robert Welch in the JBS magazines in such a way that the racial riots at Ole Miss Unversity on that day was *mandatory* based on his understanding. Robert Welch continually said that Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren should be *impeached* because racial integration of US Public Schools was, as Robert Welch insisted, an Unconstitutional mandate, and a crass violation of US States Rights.

Robert Welch railed on and on this way -- and Edwin Walker took this as his personal mandate -- it was up to Ex-General Edwin Walker to put these beliefs into PRACTICE. Edwin Walker was a man of ACTION. Edwin Walker evidently took it upon himself to interpret the words of Robert Welch as his "marching orders," and Walker himself worked out the detailed tactics of acting them out at Ole Miss.

This was clearest, perhaps, in Edwin Walker's attack on Adlai Stevenson in Dallas on 24 October 1963. Adlai was the US Ambassador to the United Nations. Robert Welch had long concluded that the United Nations was a Communist Organization. (No big surprise; if the US President was a Communist, then everything powerful in Washington DC had to be Communist.)

Therefore, Edwin Walker took Robert Welch's words very literally when Welch said that no Communist must be permitted to complete any speech in the town of a John Birch Society chapter. It was the duty of that JBS Chapter to disrupt that speech with all the means necessary in its power. Heckling, noisemakers, sabotage -- everything was allowed, because the stakes were so high.

The details of the JBS sabotage of the speech of Adlai Stevenson on 24 October 1963 at the leadership of Ex-General Edwin Walker is already well-documented -- first in Dallas, and then by scholars like Chris Cravens (1993). Yet for purposes of his reply to you, Jon, I would note that Edwin Walker was not the Strategist -- Robert Welch was the Strategist, although Robert Welch only wrote on this topic in generalities, long before the event.

Edwin Walker was only the tactician -- the executioner. It is on this basis, IMHO, that Edwin Walker organized his tactics around the ideology of Robert Welch. Welch was so certain that JFK was a Communist -- and therefore a Traitor to the USA. So, Edwin Walker, the EXECUTIONER, obediently agreed with the verdict -- and concluded that because every Traitor must die, JFK had to die.

Robert Welch was the man of WORDS. Edwin Walker was the man of ACTION.

I believe that Edwin Walker considered it his patriotic DUTY to assassinate JFK insofar as JFK (like Adlai Stevenson) had the AUDACITY to bring his very person into the home-town of Edwin Walker, into the very NEIGHBORHOOD of the JBS Chapter which Edwin Walker led, and only a few blocks from the very HOME of Edwin Walker himself.

What was Edwin Walker thinking at noon on 11/22/1963, besides hoping to please Robert Welch, his intellectual mentor?

I believe Edwin Walker was relishing the poetic justice of getting revenge on JFK and RFK for having sent Lee Harvey Oswald (in Walker's imagination) to murder Walker at his home back on 10 April 1963. For this special event, the very assassin that the Kennedy's sent (in Walker's imagination) had been carefully FRAMED since that same week back in April, to be the PATSY for this very opportunity.

This, IMHO, is what the personal papers of Edwin Walker ultimately reveal to us.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited January 21, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Brancato]

So Walker had JFK killed and set up Oswald to take the fall because he believed that the Kennedys had protected Oswald from prosecution for the attempted murder of Walker?

I think you might be interested in the pdf that Thomas Graves and Jon have posted on the thread 'was Oswald an intelligence agent''. The link is to a PDS article about the shenanigans between State, CIA, FBI, ONI etc regarding Oswald files. One interesting part occurs later in the article when he goes into the Otepka incident and his extreme right wing ties, especially to the Senate internal security subcommittee. I think in a way the info therein jibes with your own, but definitely widens the scope a bit. Many of us feel that the military was behind the assassination, but not merely a renegade ex general and some low level CIA connected hit men and JBS backers acting on their own and hoping for the best afterwards.

[Ernie Lazar]

Paul Trejo,

Thanks for the history lesson. Very valuable.

Question: Was Edwin Walker a figurehead in the anti-civil rights movement? Who may have been used. Or a leader? Who formulated strategy and gave orders.

Well, Jon, I take it that you intend your question in the context of the JFK assassination. You seem to be asking whether Edwin Walker was "merely" a figurehead in the Anti-Civil Rights movement, who could have been exploited by more powerful people in the Anti-Civil Rights movement, or whether Walker had leadership capabilities enough to formulate strategies and give orders.

My findings so far suggest (along with Jim Root) that Edwin Walker was intellectually challenged, and unaccustomed to strategy -- he was a tactician and an executive of a particularly high caliber -- that is, he took orders and he carried them out with a high degree of efficiency and success.

Therefore, given that scenario, one might hastily conclude that Edwin Walker could not have planned the execution of JFK in Dallas on 11/22/1963.

I think that would be too hasty, however and I think that Ex-General Edwin Walker played a far more active role in the preparation and execution of the JFK assassination than any writer in the past 50 years has ever credited to him. Only distant observers such as Jack Ruby and Harry Dean have so far suggested that Edwin Walker played a major role in the JFK murder -- that is, in the literature. Dr. David Wrone says that among people he knew on that day, Edwin Walker and the JBS were immediate suspects.

First, let me qualify my phrase, "intellectually challenged." After perusing the 90 boxes of personal papers of Ex-General Edwin Walker which are stored at the Dolph Briscoe Center in Austin, Texas, I learned that Edwin Walker graduated West Point in the bottom 10% of his class. He was alwaya a man of ACTION, and was not a reader of a wide range of heady literature.

One can also see from his personal papers that Edwin Walker did not keep lofty books in his library -- he read mainly newspapers and magazines, and mostly from extreme-right wing publishers. He kept articles that portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt as a Communist, for example, or Martin Luther King as a Communist. This is what we find in his personal papers. There is a lot of JBS literature, but also literature from the White Citizens Councils and related groups.

It seems also, from his personal correspondence with Robert Welch (founder of the JBS), that his intellectual limit was reached with the works of Robert Welch. Edwin Walker placed Robert Welch on a pedestal, and would probably do anything that Robert Welch suggested that he do. Walker joined the JBS in 1959, and never joined any other political group, to the best of my knowledge.

Having said that, I think we can completely stop looking for any further "leaders" of Edwin Walker than that. Walker did not join any other political groups. Even though he was invited to be a KKK Grand Dragon, he turned down the offer. Here is what Walker wrote sometime in the 1960's:

http://www.pet880.com/images/19660606_Walker_Joins_Nothing.JPG

I think Walker would no longer take orders from the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- because his resignation from the US Army was a hostile act, and he regarded the US Military to be hostage to the Communists -- as Robert Welch had said. We know Walker would no longer take orders from the US President, whom Walker regarded as a Communist -- as Robert Welch had said.

In other words -- Edwin Walker was strictly a follower of Robert Welch. Nobody else. Now -- Robert Welch did not give military or paramilitary orders (as far as we know today). For example, Robert Welch did not order Edwin Walker to lead a racial riot at Ole Miss University on 30 September 1963.

HOWEVER -- in my opinion, Edwin Walker *interpreted* the words of Robert Welch in the JBS magazines in such a way that the racial riots at Ole Miss Unversity on that day was *mandatory* based on his understanding. Robert Welch continually said that Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren should be *impeached* because racial integration of US Public Schools was, as Robert Welch insisted, an Unconstitutional mandate, and a crass violation of US States Rights.

Robert Welch railed on and on this way -- and Edwin Walker took this as his personal mandate -- it was up to Ex-General Edwin Walker to put these beliefs into PRACTICE. Edwin Walker was a man of ACTION. Edwin Walker evidently took it upon himself to interpret the words of Robert Welch as his "marching orders," and Walker himself worked out the detailed tactics of acting them out at Ole Miss.

This was clearest, perhaps, in Edwin Walker's attack on Adlai Stevenson in Dallas on 24 October 1963. Adlai was the US Ambassador to the United Nations. Robert Welch had long concluded that the United Nations was a Communist Organization. (No big surprise; if the US President was a Communist, then everything powerful in Washington DC had to be Communist.)

Therefore, Edwin Walker took Robert Welch's words very literally when Welch said that no Communist must be permitted to complete any speech in the town of a John Birch Society chapter. It was the duty of that JBS Chapter to disrupt that speech with all the means necessary in its power. Heckling, noisemakers, sabotage -- everything was allowed, because the stakes were so high.

The details of the JBS sabotage of the speech of Adlai Stevenson on 24 October 1963 at the leadership of Ex-General Edwin Walker is already well-documented -- first in Dallas, and then by scholars like Chris Cravens (1993). Yet for purposes of his reply to you, Jon, I would note that Edwin Walker was not the Strategist -- Robert Welch was the Strategist, although Robert Welch only wrote on this topic in generalities, long before the event.

Edwin Walker was only the tactician -- the executioner. It is on this basis, IMHO, that Edwin Walker organized his tactics around the ideology of Robert Welch. Welch was so certain that JFK was a Communist -- and therefore a Traitor to the USA. So, Edwin Walker, the EXECUTIONER, obediently agreed with the verdict -- and concluded that because every Traitor must die, JFK had to die.

Robert Welch was the man of WORDS. Edwin Walker was the man of ACTION.

I believe that Edwin Walker considered it his patriotic DUTY to assassinate JFK insofar as JFK (like Adlai Stevenson) had the AUDACITY to bring his very person into the home-town of Edwin Walker, into the very NEIGHBORHOOD of the JBS Chapter which Edwin Walker led, and only a few blocks from the very HOME of Edwin Walker himself.

What was Edwin Walker thinking at noon on 11/22/1963, besides hoping to please Robert Welch, his intellectual mentor?

I believe Edwin Walker was relishing the poetic justice of getting revenge on JFK and RFK for having sent Lee Harvey Oswald (in Walker's imagination) to murder Walker at his home back on 10 April 1963. For this special event, the very assassin that the Kennedy's sent (in Walker's imagination) had been carefully FRAMED since that same week back in April, to be the PATSY for this very opportunity.

This, IMHO, is what the personal papers of Edwin Walker ultimately reveal to us.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

As is often the case with Paul's assertions, one has to define terms before beginning any sort of analysis or discussion of the merits of what he writes. I refer to Paul's comment that:

"Walker joined the JBS in 1959, and never joined any other political group, to the best of my knowledge."

There are many different ways to comprehend the meaning of and apply the verb "join" or "to join". Here are the most common:

1. to bring in contact, connect, or bring or put together

2. to come into contact or union with

3. to bring together in a particular relation or for a specific purpose, action, etc.; unite

4. to become a member of (an organization, party, etc.)

5. to enlist in (one of the armed forces)

6. to come into the company of; meet or accompany

7. to participate with someone in some act or activity

What Paul wants us to believe is that Walker never officially joined any groups other than the JBS which Paul describes as a "political organization". For clarity, the JBS was incorporated in both Massachusetts and in California as an educational organization.

If one considers the other relevant definitions of the verb "join", it becomes manifestly self-evident that Walker joined and lent his support and endorsement to many different organizations -- all of which were right-wing extremist and many of which were explicitly racist --- although Paul also claims that Walker was NOT a racist.

Walker traversed our country, from coast-to-coast, to express his views and to affirm his political convictions. There are literally dozens of organizations which could be listed which clearly establish Walker's priorities and political sympathies in the context of the verb "join" -- in conformity with the 7 definitions I cited above.

Edited January 21, 2015 by Ernie Lazar

[David Boylan]

Paul.

I admit it's confusing and I'm as confused now as I've ever been. Otepka was an associate of Robert Morris. Of course Morris was close to Walker, H.L. Hunt, and L. Robert Castorr. Morris was also friendly with Lester Logue. Logue knew Loran Hall, Gerry Hemming, Jeb Rose and George DeMorenschildt.

Rose offered Hall $50,000 to kill JFK. George DeM was friends with Oswald. Hall knew John Martino.

[Paul Trejo]

Paul.

I admit it's confusing and I'm as confused now as I've ever been. Otepka was an associate of Robert Morris. Of course Morris was close to Walker, H.L. Hunt, and L. Robert Castorr. Morris was also friendly with Lester Logue. Logue knew Loran Hall, Gerry Hemming, Jeb Rose and George DeMorenschildt.

Rose offered Hall $50,000 to kill JFK. George DeM was friends with Oswald. Hall knew John Martino.

Hi David,

Thanks for picking up on this, because I'd like to develop it further.

What I'm proposing is a paradigm shift from the way that JFK researchers have been writing since the days of Jim Garrison. At the end of Jim Garrison's failed court case, he just blamed the CIA for everything.

In a sense, that's what most JFK researchers do -- we say, "the CIA keeps secrets and that's why we can't solve the JFK murder."

But the data doesn't add up. We can look back over half a century now, and see real problems. We only have two CIA Officers who confessed -- Morales and Hunt.

But we have another ten guys who confessed who weren't CIA Officers. You named three of them above: Loran Hall, Gerry Patrick Hemming and John Martino.

These guys were mercenary soldiers, to be blunt. Hall and Hemming came up on drug trafficking charges in later life. Add to this Johnny Roselli and Frank Sturgis, and we can begin to see the street credentials of perhaps *most* of the guys who confessed (in some degree or other) to a JFK conspiracy.

Jim Garrison and Joan Mellen also name more riff-raff -- like Jack S. Martin, Fred Crisman, David Ferrie and Thomas Beckham -- not CIA Officers, but street people.

Now -- what captured the imagination of Jim Garrison, Joan Mellen and perhaps most JFK researchers is that all these guys had made *deals* with the CIA. They were not CIA Agents, or CIA Officers -- they were CIA "flunkies."

That's true of every single person I've named above. That's why we have literally scores of books on the JFK murder that are *absolutely certain* that the CIA was responsible for the murder of JFK.

I say they're wrong.

Bill Simpich, in my opinion, proved in 2014 with his book, "State Secret," that the CIA was divided inside itself on the simple topic of "Who Impersonated Oswald in Mexico City?" AND *WHY* DID THEY IMPERSONATE HIM?

In my reading of the same CIA materials that Bill Simpich presented, I conclude that CIA Officer David Morales and his minions Impersonated Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City, for the express purpose of *continuing* Guy Banister's FRAMING of Oswald to look more and more like a hopeless, Fidel-loving Communist. And the CIA had no clue about this.

But that means, IMHO, that David Morales (and all his minions) were really working for Guy Banister. Yet Guy Banister was not a CIA Officer -- he was a CIVILIAN.

If only Jim Garrison had kept hammering on the CIVILIAN angle of his investigation, instead of getting side-tracked on the brick-wall dead-end of the CIA, then he could have made further progress, IMHO.

So, that's my reorientation -- the CIA guys who were involved were WORKING FOR THESE CIVILIAN REBELS.

Who were the Civilian Rebels? They were not the Mafia -- although the Mafia was eager to funnel money their way. I say they were the Radical Right-wing in the South. Given that orientation, we can now see how all the players fit. Loran Hall, Gerry Patrick Hemming, John Martino -- all of these guys had interaction with the John Birch Society.

So did Guy Banister. So did Edwin Walker. So did Robert Morris. So did Lester Logue. So did H.L. Hunt. It was at a gathering related to the JBS that Jeb Rose offered Loran Hall $50,000 to kill JFK.

Now -- everything changes when we speak about George De Mohrenschildt.

George was right-wing at one point in his life -- but in 1963 he was working on his moderate side -- he had just obtained a CIA-blessed oil-exploration contract in Haiti worth $250,000 (which would be ten times more today, adjusted for inflation). The folks in Haiti are mostly Black folks, and George was going to go live there for several years. He could not be on the Deep South side of politics down in Haiti. So, George De Mohrenschildt was preening his Liberal side in 1963.

This is where things get interesting -- De Mohrenschildt admitted (and so did Volkmar Schmidt) that he worked on Lee Harvey Oswald for *weeks* to stop complaining about the Bay of Pigs, and start complaining about Ex-General Edwin Walker.

George De Mohrenschildt was not a friend of Edwin Walker. Their hostility toward each other shows in the pages of the Warren Commission volumes.

It was BECAUSE of George De Mohrenschildt that Lee Harvey Oswald -- and at least one other accomplice -- made a major effort to try to kill Edwin Walker in April 1963. Roscoe White was involved in the Backyard Photographs, for example. (Now, Roscoe was a rightist, but he was also a young man, an ex-Marine, and he evidently liked Lee Oswald, his former Marine buddy. I don't know his involvement, but I really want to find out.)

George De Mohrenschildt had a reputation of being rich -- and at one time he was super-rich. He knew the family of Jackie Kennedy, for one thing. Lee Oswald wanted to please George De Mohrenshildt. It was this desire to please George that propelled Oswald to try to kill Walker.

It wasn't that Oswald really hated Walker himself (or he probably wouldn't have missed). Oswald even writes about Walker in some of his rambling writings, and we don't see any hatred there. BUT GEORGE De Mohrenschildt HATED WALKER, and Oswald wanted to please George De Mohrenschildt.

This is practically proven by the verified signature of Oswald on the back of the Backyard Photograph that George De Mohrenschildt had in his possession.

There is the complexity -- what makes it confusing. George was trying to be a Liberal. He had bad words to say about Edwin Walker. George never joined the JBS, thinking of them as too low-brow for his sophisticated reading tastes. Lee Harvey Oswald wanted to be more like George De Mohrenschildt. THAT was why he tried to kill Edwin Walker.

Now -- once Edwin Walker was enraged enough (as if Ole Miss hadn't done the trick) he decided HE WAS GOING TO LEAD ALL THIS RABBLE OF STREET THUGS, and mercenaries and Mafia drop-outs, and all these riff-raff sitting around, complaining about JFK but just spinning their wheels.

Once Edwin Walker got involved all the pieces fell together.

Once Edwin Walker got involved, there was a PROFESSIONAL job under way to FRAME a real-live Patsy. It was the PERFECT choice, because Oswald was so iffy in politics. Was he on the left or the right? Oswald just laughed at everybody for worrying about the "Red Herring" to use Oswald's own words.

Once David Morales (and Howard Hunt) saw that Guy Banister really had some TRACTION in the murder of JFK, they decided to help near the end -- at Mexico City in September. (The sheep-dip of Oswald started in late April, and ended in late September).

By October, all the pieces were now marching in step -- for the first time. Everybody knew his role. There were probably 24 people just in the hit teams. There were probably another 24 people just doing communications, coordination, using walkie-talkies and umbrella timing signals.

It was a paramilitary attack organized by one of the best military TACTICIANS of the 20th century.

It fits the history of 1962-1963. These three events follow each other in lock-step: (1) the Ole Miss riots; (2) the humiliation of Adlai Stevenson; (3) the JFK assassination.

They all have the same JBS ideology and language behind them -- and they all have the same paramilitary tactical expertise behind them.

We have wasted 50 years trying to prove the CIA did it. We should stop beating that dead horse -- we should finally turn our attention toward a CIVILIAN conspiracy to murder JFK.

Yet perhaps in some ways this will be more difficult -- because it's easy to blame the CIA which is so invisible to most of us. It is far harder to blame people in right-wing politics -- because all of us know at least a few people on the right.

It won't be easy.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 22, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

Dear EF Readers,

Two years ago, in a history course with the well-known historian, Professor H.W. Brands at UT Austin, I wrote a brief history of Ex-General Edwin Walker.

Professor Brands liked it, and advised me to find a publisher. I tried and tried, but no publisher would print it, because "nobody remembers Walker anymore." There's no money in it.

I can accept that. Even though Edwin Walker's name appears more than 500 times in the Warren Commission volumes, JFK researchers for 50 years have neglected his profile with regard to the JFK murder.

My study of Edwin Walker was a response to the acquisition of Edwin Walker's personal papers by the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at UT Austin. In those personal papers, I found what I believe are important clues for the resolution of the JFK murder -- and I would like more people to see that data.

My report was about 350 pages. I've freely supplied information from that paper on this Forum for the past two years -- but it's still not the same as reading the book itself.

Now, at last, I found a publisher of sorts. It's SMASHWORDS; a spin-off of Amazon.com. My book has finally been accepted in the popular Epub format. It's in three parts. The first 20% of each part is available free for anybody to read.

The title is: "A Brief History of Ex-General Edwin Walker." Here are the URL's for this new eBook:

PART ONE:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/501625

PART TWO:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/501629

PART THREE:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/501646

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 28, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

Thank you for your list Paul. We have overlapped on several, but a few I added to my "to interview" list. Thanks again and I will happily share whatever I find!

Hi Gayle; this has been on my mind with regard to your generous offer to interview folks in Dallas and share your reports here.

In my theory, Lee Harvey Oswald really did try to kill Edwin Walker (inspired by George De Mohrenschildt, Volkmar Schmidt, Michael Paine, et al) and he made a lot of preparation, including a book of photos and maps, and some Backyard Photo "fakes" as memorabilia.

To make all these, he had access to sophisticated photographic equipment at his place of employment -- Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall in Dallas, at that time (February through March 1963).

I wonder if any of the employees from Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall in 1963 are still alive -- and if so, if they can tell us more about Lee Harvey Oswald there.

Did they see Lee Oswald make personal use of company equipment? Did they see his "Alek J. Hidell" fake ID card which he made there? Did they see any or all of the famous Backyard Photographs (which were deliberate fakes, made by Oswald himself, in my theory) which [if I'm right] could ONLY have been made at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall between February and March 1963, in any manner?

If none of those employees are still alive, Gayle, then what about their children? Any stories in Dallas?

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited February 11, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Ernie Lazar]

Interesting story re: Bill O'Reilly's claims about his alleged contacts with JFK-related matters:

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2015/02/hugh_aynesworth_talks_about_why_bill_oreilly_would_lie_about_jfk_assassination.php

[Paul Trejo]

Yeah, Bill O'Reilly has semi-officially joined the lunatic fringe, IMHO. I hope that David Korn (Mother Jones) continues to expose O'Reilly for his self-contradictions. He deserves it.

--Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

In the thread, "Proof of Motorcade Stopping," in post #293, Robert Mady wrote:

...Here is a possible link to WALKER and the weapon used for the first shot.

In CROSSFIRE, on page 257 in section on WALKER, Marrs writes about people known to be strongly associated with WALKER.

"It is noteworthy that Nelson Hunt's interests apparently ran to violent extremes. A former Hunt family security man, ex-FBI agent Paul Rothermeil, has claimed he was approached by Nelson Bunker Hunt while working for H.L. Hunt. Rothermeil said the younger Hunt wanted help in forming a paramilitary organization and would eliminate opponents with a 'gas gun' imported from Europe. (Victims of this exotic weapon reportedly appear to have suffered a heart attack) Rothermeil said Hunt planned to recruit this private army from General Walker's Dallas Birch Society group..."

The weapon used to wound KENNEDY in the throat could be the weapon that is being described by Rothermeil.

...Paul, you may be correct that WALKER was up to his eyeballs in the assassination, thanks for all the information, I look forward to having additional discussions with you.

OK, Bob, I moved this WALKER discussion back to the Edwin Walker thread.

Although we agree that the Warren Report was slanted to prove a "Lone Nut" scenario for Lee Harvey OSWALD, I still maintain that there are important facts inside the Warren Commission volumes -- but we have to become experts at "hair-splitting".

For example, on page 292 of the Warren Report (single volume summary), we read about the John Birch Society and the Hunt family in a direct manner, with linkage both to JFK and WALKER:

---------------- Begin excerpt from the Warren Report -------------------

Right-wing groups hostile to President Kennedy. --The Commission also considered the possibility that there may have been a link between Oswald and certain groups which had bitterly denounced President Kennedy and his policies prior to the time of the President's trip to Dallas. As discussed in chapter II, two provocative incidents took place concurrently with President Kennedy's visit and a third but a month prior thereto. The incidents were:

(1) the demonstration against the Honorable Adlai E. Stevenson, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, in late October 1963, when he came to Dallas on United Nations Day;

(2) the publication in the Dallas Morning News on November 22 of the full page, black-bordered paid advertisement entitled, "Welcome Mr. Kennedy"; and

(3) the distribution of a throwaway handbill entitled "Wanted for Treason" throughout Dallas on November 20 and 21.

Oswald was aware of the Stevenson incident; there is no evidence that he became aware of either the "Welcome Mr. Kennedy" advertisement or the "Wanted for Treason" handbill, though neither possibility can be precluded. (WARREN REPORT, pp. 292-293)

---------------- End excerpt from the Warren Report ---------------

There is ample evidence that WALKER and the JBS were coordinators of the attacks on Adlai Stevenson.

There is ample evidence that WALKER and the JBS were behind the "Welcome Mr. Kennedy to Dallas" black-bordered ad.

There is ample evidence that WALKER and the JBS were behind the "Wanted for Treason: JFK" handbill.

The Warren Report focused on a few individuals in the Dallas JBS, namely, Larry Schmidt, Bernard Weissman and Joe Grinnan. In the context of the black-bordered ad, the Warren Report named three more men: Nelson Bunker Hunt, Edgar Crissey and H.R. Bright.

Here again we have a Hunt brother, named along with the JBS, in connection with the Dallas right-wing activities directly associated with the JFK murder.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited February 27, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

Also, Bob Mady, here's another excerpt from the Warren Commission volumes -- the testimony of Bernard Weissman, linked to the radical right-wing in Dallas:

------------------ Begin excerpt from Warren Commission testimony of Bernard Weissman -----------
...
Mr. JENNER. Stick with General Walker for a moment. To what extent were you able to infiltrate, as you call it, General Walker's group?

Mr. WEISSMAN. Well this was rather a fiasco. Larrie's brother, as I mentioned in the letter -- Larrie's brother went to work for General Walker.

Mr. JENNER. What was his name?

Mr. WEISSMAN. I don't know his first name. But Larrie led me to believe his brother was some guy; his brother is about 29. And the only thing I ever heard from Larrie about his brother was good; and when he mentioned that his brother had joined the Walker organization, I figured this is another step in the right direction. In other words, he was solidifying his argument as to why I should come to Dallas.

Mr. JENNER. And this what he told you?

Mr. WEISSMAN. Right So when I got to Dallas, I found that Larrie's brother drank too much, and had -- well I considered him a moron. He didn't have any sense at all. He was very happy with $35 a week and room and board that General Walker was giving him as his chauffeur and general aide. And so I tossed that out the window that we would never get into the Walker organization this way.

Mr. JENNER. This man's name, by any chance, was not Volkmar?

Mr. WEISSMAN. This name is entirely unfamiliar to me. Never heard it before.

Senator COOPER. Could you identify the Walker organization? You keep speaking of the Walker organization.

Mr. WEISSMAN. General Edwin Walker.

Mr. JENNER. General Edwin A. Walker?

Mr. WEISSMAN. Yes.

Mr. JENNER. Did you ever meet him?

Mr. WEISSMAN. No: I never have...

------------------ End excerpt from Warren Commission testimony of Bernard Weissman -----------

It is relevant to this discussion that the leader of Bernard's group, CUSA, was Larrie Schmidt, and that his brother, Robbie Schmidt, was living with Edwin WALKER at the time. As late as 2012, Larrie Schmidt still refused to talk about his brother's time with Edwin WALKER.

I note also that JENNER had heard about Volkmar Schmidt -- no relation to Larrie or Robbie -- and the Volkmar Schmidt story did not come out in the Warren Report. Volkmar told it separately -- without hesitation.

In the opinion of Volkmar Schmidt, after he psychologically processed Lee Harvey OSWALD for several hours to hate and depise Edwin WALKER in February 1963, at a Dallas yuppie engineer's party, attended by his friend Michael Paine and George De Mohrenschildt, OSWALD soon after purchased weapons and set about to kill WALKER.

But there's more. Bernie Weissman, in the two hours after the JFK murder, was afraid because of his role in the black-bordered ad, and because his right-wing group with Larrie Schmidt was so closely associated with the JBS and with WALKER. It's worthwhile to review this excerpt from his testimony.

------------------ Begin excerpt #2 from Warren Commission testimony of Bernard Weissman -----------
...
Mr. JENNER. When did you first hear the name Lee Harvey Oswald?

Mr. WEISSMAN. We were sitting in a bar, right after President Kennedy's assassination...It was Bill Burley, myself, and Larrie. We...were to meet Larrie and Joe Grinnan at the Ducharme Club.

Mr. JENNER. For what meal?

Mr. WEISSMAN. For luncheon. We were supposed to meet him at 12:30 or 1 o'clock, I forget which...So I turned the radio on, looking for a news station. And...the announcer said, "There has been a rumor that President Kennedy has been shot..." And then we heard about the police pulling all sorts of people...off the street and so forth...Anyway, we finally wound up at...the Ducharme Club.

Mr. JENNER. When you arrived there, was Mr. Schmidt there?

Mr. WEISSMAN. He was waiting for me. But Joe Grinnan wasn't there. He had heard this thing and took off. I guess he wanted to hide or something.

Mr. JENNER. Why?

Mr. WEISSMAN. Well, because the way it was right away, the announcers, even before it was ascertained that President Kennedy was dead, or that he had really been shot, that it was a right-wing plot and so forth. And he had every reason to be frightened.

Mr. JENNER. Why did he have every reason to be frightened?

Mr. WEISSMAN. Because, let's face it, the public feeling would suddenly be very anti-right-wing, and no telling what would happen if a mob got together and discovered him. They would tear him apart. Bill and I were frightened to the point because I knew about the ad. And I knew exactly what -- at least I felt in my own mind I knew what people would believe. They would read the ad and so forth, and associate you with this thing, somehow, one way or another. So we went to another bar...the Ducharme Club was closed...

Mr. JENNER. When you reached the Ducharme Club, it was closed, but you found Mr. Schmidt there?

Mr. WEISSMAN. Larrie was waiting on the corner. He got in the car. We sat and talked for a few minutes. We went to another bar a few blocks away. We drank beer and watched television. And we had been in the bar, I guess, about an hour when it come over that this patrolman Tippit had been shot, and they trapped some guy in a movie theater. And maybe half an hour, an hour later, it came out this fellow's name was Lee Harvey Oswald. This is the first time I ever heard the name.

Mr. JENNER. What was said at that time?

Mr. WEISSMAN. By us?

Mr. JENNER. Yes. When it was announced it was Lee Harvey Oswald.

Mr. WEISSMAN. We were relieved.

Mr. JENNER. Anything said about it?

Mr. WEISSMAN. I don't recall. First, what was said, like, I hope he is not a member of the Walker group -- something like that -- I hope he is not one of Walker's boys. Because it is like a clique, and it is guilt by association from thereafter. So it came over later this guy was a Marxist...and then the announcers -- they left the right-wing for a little while, and started going to the left, and I breathed a sigh of relief...

------------------ End excerpt #2 from Warren Commission testimony of Bernard Weissman -----------

Not only Bernard Weissman, but a number of other sources claim that in the first two hours after the JFK murder, the prevailing buzz on the street was that the right-wing and Edwin WALKER had done this deed.

It was common sense in 1963. But we are more than a half-century away from 1963, today.

Regards,
--Paul Trejo

Edited February 28, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Brancato]

I remember the Walker and the Minutemen did it buzz well, even living in the Bronx. I have never doubted for a moment that the conspiracy was right wing.