Lumpkin, Gannaway, and the DPD-Army Intelligence network

[Chuck Schwartz]

Bill, is the Corso you reference above related to the Corso that got in trouble with Mueller for his dealings with Roger Stone?

[Bill Simpich]

Hi Chuck, you are thinking of Jerome Corsi - the right-wing theorist - no relation.

[Bill Simpich]

Continued from above, Part 4:

Here's Wikipedia's bio on Col. Philip Corso - it shows that he was chief of the US Counter Intelligence Corps in Rome, among other high-powered sensitive duties, and cannot be simply dismissed as a "nut" 

After joining the Army in 1942, Corso served in Army Intelligence in Europe, becoming chief of the US Counter Intelligence Corps in Rome.

In 1945, Corso arranged for the safe passage of 10,000 Jewish World War II refugees out of Rome to the British Mandate of Palestine. He was the personal emissary to Giovanni Battista Montini at the Vatican, later Pope Paul VI, during the period when the "Nazi Rat Lines" were most active.

During the Korean War (1950–1953), Corso performed intelligence duties under General Douglas MacArthur as Chief of the Special Projects branch of the Intelligence Division, Far East Command. One of his primary duties was to keep track of enemy prisoner of war (POW) camps in North Korea.^[3] Corso was in charge of investigating the estimated number of U.S. and other United Nations POWs held at each camp and their treatment.

Corso was on the staff of President Eisenhower's National Security Council for four years (1953–1957). (Note:  As seen above, Corso backed G-2 chief Lt. Gen. Arthur Trudeau during Trudeau's battle with Dulles from 1955-1957 - as said earlier, Trudeau was ultimately fired by Eisenhower and shipped to Asia).

In 1961:  he became Chief of the Pentagon's Foreign Technology desk in Army Research and Development, working again under the now-disgraced Lt. Gen. Arthur Trudeau.  Strom Thurmond,  who worked with Trudeau and Corso, challenged the Army representative at hearing for "censoring" the phrase "Fabian socialists" out of Trudeau's speeches.

In 1963 before the assassination - the impersonation of Oswald story:  Corso claims to Dick Russell (On the Trail of the Assassins, pp. 126-127, see attachment below), that Bill Sullivan told him that "a phony defector named Oswald had gone to Russia, as part of an operation being run by our ONI.  And that now his birth certificate was possibly in the hands of the Soviets, or someone impersonating him in the US.  I also talked about this with a Mr. Frank J. Hand, who was liaison between the White House, CIA and State Dept.  He told me that the CIA had put a control agent on the Oswalds to monitor their activities, after they came back to Dallas-Fort Worth."  

Frank Hand was not that type of liaison.  See this memo written by Col. L. Fletcher Prouty, who then (as "L. P.") passes a copy to "Frank" (Frank Hand, CIA liaison to the Department of Defense - not the State Dept. or the White House - and a known associate of Prouty's). (My note:  See how Corso distorts the role of Frank Hand. Why should we trust the rest of his information?) 

Corso told Dick Russell that Sen. Richard Russell told him "Phil, I believe everything you've said..."  If that was the case, why did Russell cast Corso aside two months later?

I think Corso's role was to kill the notion that anyone impersonated Oswald.

In December 1963 - the Oswald as an informant story:   Reporters Lonnie Hudkins, Hugh Aynesworth and District Attorney Bill Alexander made up a very elaborate myth about Oswald being FBI informant S-179 and getting paid $200 a month.  In reality, Jim Hosty paid $200 a month to the "Herbert Philbrick" of Dallas - William Lowery, FBI informant and Dallas Communist Party member.  Aynesworth told Esquire magazine in 1976 that they made the whole thing up to see if they could figure out if their phones were being tapped by the FBI!

In any case, after the WC became very ashen about the possibility in January 1964, Corso re-ignited the flagging story again.

This 2/7/64 FBI memo shows how upset DeLoach Hoover was by this Oswald informant notion - DeLoach took Hoover's affidavit that Oswald was not an informant to Richard Russell, who said it was "a good affidavit and one which should forever straighten this rumor out."  

DeLoach turned to Sourwine and reminded him that Sourwine had told him his source for the rumor was the State Dept. - Sourwine said DeLoach's memory was mistaken, he said it was "motivated" by the State Dept.  DeLoach responded his memory and notes were clear.  DeLoach was firm he needed the name of the source - Sourwine admitted it was Corso, Thurmond's employee.   

Corso's response when confronted was that he would "take the FBI's word that Oswald was not an informant."

Corso then "began to backtrack" - blaming the Right-Wing's favorite boogeyman - the State Department.  

"(Corso) stated that his sources had merely told him that they knew the FBI had been in contact with Oswald prior to the assassination of the President.  He quickly added that his sources within CIA also felt that Oswald's activity, while in the Soviet Union, represented a State Dept. operation.  Corso indicated that 'if' Oswald had been an informant, while in the Soviet Union, he would have submitted reports to three US employees of the American Embassy.  He named these individuals as Angeli  (note: Russell Langelle), John Vincent Abadian, and Hugh Montgomery." (These are CIA officers).  He said his sources had no definite facts.

After reiterating the CIA could have been a source, Corso then turned on the Communist Party Texas secretary John Stanford (who Lowery had testified against) and said that Stanford "knew that Oswald had been an FBI source of information and had related this fact to other parties.  I asked Colonel Corso how he knew this.  He stated that he could not recall his source of information...

...he told (DeLoach) he was well-versed in the intelligence game and knew how the CIA and State Dept. operated.  He stated he had no sympathy with CIA inasmuch as had quite often failed to cooperate with him when he was operating with intelligence...he had been concerned only in this matter because he was afraid that the communists were promoting a deliberate smear against the FBI.   I asked him why he brought in the Communist Party when he had originally claimed that the information had come from CIA.  He stated that the information obtained from the communist, Stanford, apparently represented a deliberate smear attempt on the part of the communists...

...Senator Thurmond entered the room and I advised him completely of the falseness of the allegations and exhibited to him the affidavit in question.  Senator Thurmond stated that he did not to read the affidavit inasmuch as he had known that the allegations were false all along..."

On 2/25/64, DeLoach spoke with Dick Berlin, a top executive with the Hearst chain and formerly with the New Orleans Times-Picayune.  who said his reporters were hearing about the informant story from a variety of sources.  DeLoach responded saying there are three sources for this false story:  1) SISS and Sourwine got the story from Corso, who had then "backed down".  DeLoach said Corso had "faulty logic" and was "a dreamer".   2) The Communist Party; 3) former FBI agent (and JFK author) William Turner.  He also told the story of Lonnie Hudkins and how he wouldn't go on the record.  Berlin said he was "satisfied and that no action would be taken by the Hearst papers."

In short, I  think Corso was used to kill the story that LHO was an informant.

March 1964:  The Allen-Scott journalist team pass on a story about Soviet defectors - specifically falsely naming Oswald's cousin Marilyn Murret as a defector  - she is in Japan as the same time as Harold Isaacs - and with a WC file entitled "Harold Isaacs" that is all about her - but she is not a defector.  Why?  We will discuss that in the following segment.

An 1992 incident discussed below indicates that Corso had no problem providing to Congress undocumented and uncorroborated testimony that hundred of American POWs were abandoned in Vietnam - Why?  Because Communists were involved - and disinformation against the "enemy" is Corso's specialty.

At later hearings in 1992 of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, Corso provided first hand testimony, that many hundreds of American POWs were abandoned at these camps.^[4][5] At those hearings, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) dismissed the undocumented and uncorroborated allegations made by Corso as being extremely difficult to believe. McCain implied that Corso was guilty of fabricating the truth and essentially terminated the testimony being given by Corso immediately after a severe verbal reprimand on live television. McCain stated that his knowledge obtained from those who had personal relationships with Eisenhower led him to believe that Eisenhower was just not capable of allowing known American POWs to remain incarcerated after the termination of the Korean War.

In the early 90s:   Corso held on to the "KGB-did-it" theory of the JFK assassination. 

In 1998: Corso pointed to the renegade CIA officers and Cubans, telling Dick Russell "I don't think the Soviets killed President Kennedy...they were afraid it might be pinned on (the Soviets "look-alike defector").  But no, I would look into the renegade CIA people, along with the anti-Castro Cubans."

What final observations and conclusions can we draw from this conduct of Corso, Trudeau, Wedemeyer, and Harold Isaacs?

To be continued...

 

[Robert Montenegro]

1 hour ago, Bill Simpich said:

In 1963 before the assassination - the impersonation of Oswald story:  Corso claims to Dick Russell (On the Trail of the Assassins, pp. 126-127, see attachment below), that Bill Sullivan told him that "a phony defector named Oswald had gone to Russia, as part of an operation being run by our ONI.  And that now his birth certificate was possibly in the hands of the Soviets, or someone impersonating him in the US.  I also talked about this with a Mr. Frank J. Hand, who was liaison between the White House, CIA and State Dept.  He told me that the CIA had put a control agent on the Oswalds to monitor their activities, after they came back to Dallas-Fort Worth."  

Frank Hand was not that type of liaison.  See this memo written by Col. L. Fletcher Prouty, who then (as "L. P.") passes a copy to "Frank" (Frank Hand, CIA liaison to the Department of Defense - not the State Dept. or the White House - and a known associate of Prouty's). (My note:  See how Corso distorts the role of Frank Hand. Why should we trust the rest of his information?) 

Corso told Dick Russell that Sen. Richard Russell told him "Phil, I believe everything you've said..."  If that was the case, why did Russell cast Corso aside two months later?

I think Corso's role was to kill the notion that anyone impersonated Oswald.

In December 1963 - the Oswald as an informant story:   Reporters Lonnie Hudkins, Hugh Aynesworth and District Attorney Bill Alexander made up a very elaborate myth about Oswald being FBI informant S-179 and getting paid $200 a month.  In reality, Jim Hosty paid $200 a month to the "Herbert Philbrick" of Dallas - William Lowery, FBI informant and Dallas Communist Party member.  Aynesworth told Esquire magazine in 1976 that they made the whole thing up to see if they could figure out if their phones were being tapped by the FBI!

In any case, after the WC became very ashen about the possibility in January 1964, Corso re-ignited the flagging story again.

This 2/7/64 FBI memo shows how upset DeLoach Hoover was by this Oswald informant notion - DeLoach took Hoover's affidavit that Oswald was not an informant to Richard Russell, who said it was "a good affidavit and one which should forever straighten this rumor out."  

DeLoach turned to Sourwine and reminded him that Sourwine had told him his source for the rumor was the State Dept. - Sourwine said DeLoach's memory was mistaken, he said it was "motivated" by the State Dept.  DeLoach responded his memory and notes were clear.  DeLoach was firm he needed the name of the source - Sourwine admitted it was Corso, Thurmond's employee.   

Corso's response when confronted was that he would "take the FBI's word that Oswald was not an informant."

Corso then "began to backtrack" - blaming the Right-Wing's favorite boogeyman - the State Department.  

"(Corso) stated that his sources had merely told him that they knew the FBI had been in contact with Oswald prior to the assassination of the President.  He quickly added that his sources within CIA also felt that Oswald's activity, while in the Soviet Union, represented a State Dept. operation.  Corso indicated that 'if' Oswald had been an informant, while in the Soviet Union, he would have submitted reports to three US employees of the American Embassy.  He named these individuals as Angeli  (note: Russell Langelle), John Vincent Abadian, and Hugh Montgomery." (These are CIA officers).  He said his sources had no definite facts.

After reiterating the CIA could have been a source, Corso then turned on the Communist Party Texas secretary John Stanford (who Lowery had testified against) and said that Stanford "knew that Oswald had been an FBI source of information and had related this fact to other parties.  I asked Colonel Corso how he knew this.  He stated that he could not recall his source of information...

1) SISS and Sourwine got the story from Corso, who had then "backed down".  DeLoach said Corso had "faulty logic" and was "a dreamer".   

Mr. Simpich, in examining Lt. Col. Philip James Corso's activities, I have noted that Lt. Col. Corso's actions appear to be that of a massive counter-intelligence "disinformation" campaign pitting the FBI, the State Department, and the CIA against each other, by strategically claiming each of those had hired Lee Harvey Oswald either as an informant or an active agent.

Consider for a moment that Lt. Col. Corso's job during the Korean War was the Chief of the Special Projects branch of the Intelligence Division, Far East Command under Maj. Gen. Charles Andrew Willoughby.

Lt. Col. Corso was in charge of all Chinese and Korean prisoner of war movements and interrogations.

High-value targets within the POW community that Lt. Col. Corso oversaw were transferred to Atsugi Air Force Base, where highly exotic torture-interrogation sessions were conducted under the tutelage of Hans V. Tofte, the Office of Policy Coordination's Chief of Station in Tokyo, Japan. E. Howard Hunt was the Office of Policy Coordination's Chief of Covert Action in Tokyo, Japan around this same time period and appears to be Gen'yōsha chieftain Yoshio Kodama's (co-founder of the Asian People's Anti-Communist League) case officer under a covert CIA program with the cryptonym "BGSAMURAI".

Hans V. Tofte would later be Charles Tracy Barnes liaison within the CIA's Domestic Operations Division. Again, "Operation 40" comptroller E. Howard Hunt was the Chief of Covert Action for the CIA's Domestic Operations Division.

Perhaps Lt. Col. Corso was aware of this relationship and exploited it, pointing the finger anywhere and everywhere, so as to muck up the works, in terms of a viable investigation into who was really behind the murder of President Kennedy?

 

Edited May 19, 2020 by Robert Montenegro

[Paul Brancato]

I don’t want this thread to die so I’m bumping it. Bill - could you summarize some conclusions? What was McCloy saying in part one? 

[Bill Simpich]

Thanks Paul!  I am working on a summary, it will take a few days  - Robert, if you have any good sources on Corso or Willoughby, could you share them?

In part 1, McCloy was threatening Wedemeyer.  They backed off, there wasn't good evidence.  Higham wrote in his 1985 book that he suspected FDR from staging the leak.

In 1987, historian Thomas Fleming interviewed Wedemeyer.  Without being provocative, Wedemeyer - the author of Rainbow Five - agreed with Higham:

'I have no evidence, but I have always been convinced, on some sort of intuitional level, that President Roosevelt authorized it (the leak),' Wedemeyer told him. 'I can't conceive of anyone else ...having the nerve to release that document.'

[Bill Simpich]

Still working on Part 5 of From Rainbow Five to Dealey Plaza and Beyond -

Meanwhile - LUMPKIN ON THE DALLAS POLICE TAPES AND TRANSCRIPTIONS

(Most people don't know there is a transcription of the Dallas sheriff's tape - and where are the notes to the Secret Service transcriptions that Gary Allen found?) 

(The ARRB tried to obtain these Secret Service tapes; the Secret Service said they had nothing - The ARRB also looked for tapes on the WHCA's "Charlie frequency"; where are the FBI tapes?)

Here is just an excerpt from Gary Mack on his story about the Dallas police tapes.

 

The earliest known interest in the recordings seems to have been by the Secret Service. Warren Commission Document 87 contains a report filed by Special Agent Roger C. Warner and SA Elmer W. Moore dated December 1, 1963. The Dallas Field Office number is CO-2-34,030 and the page number seems to be 324. Only the first page of this report is available. Warner described his meeting with DPD Chief George L. Lumpkin two days earlier.

Lumpkin 'provided for transcription on our tape' the DPD recordings of Channels 1 and 2, which Warner recorded and sent to Washington for 'filtering, rerecording and transcription.' The term rerecording could well be significant, but Warner also stated that copies would be returned to the Dallas office. To this day, no copies of the SS tapes have been located, although researcher Mark Allen recently found the written transcript.

Warner seems to imply that he copied the DPD recordings at the police department, but Jim Bowles (NOTE:  DPD communications chief) remembers differently. In a recent interview he told me the Secret Service 'took those blue belts' out of the building, but he had no idea whether they stayed in Dallas or went to Washington.

Asked when they were returned, he said 'not for a few days, we were awfully busy then.' As for the possibility duplicate Dictabelts were returned, Bowles said 'anything's possible' but doubted that was the case. The belts must have been returned the following week, for by December 5 DPD Sergeant Gerald Henslee, the Channel 2 dispatcher at the time of the assassination, had completed the first DPD transcript.

His report, Sawyer Exhibit B before the Warren Commission, does not explain the circumstances of the transcript, but one can assume it was made at the DPD. Then, according to the testimony of Paul McCaghren (HSCA 108), the belts were in the possession of the DPD and the special investigative unit Chief Curry formed to study the Oswald murder and the killing of Officer Tippit.

In fact, the Henslee transcript may well have been prepared for just that purpose, except for one problem: the Channel 1 transcripts relating to Tippit are inadequate and incomplete.

On March 6, 1964 the FBI requested a more thorough transcript from the Dallas Police and the job went to Sergeant Jim Bowles. His version became Warren Commission Exhibit 705 which, although more detailed than Henslee's, still lacked much important information.

In interviews conducted August 27 and September 15, 1980, Bowles told the FBI of his experience with the Channel 1 Dictabelts and Channel 2 Audograph discs:

The original belts and discs, containing recordings of radio transmissions at or about the time of the assassination of President Kennedy were provided to the FBI within a few , days of that event, Several days later an FBI Agent returned the belts and discs to Captain Bowles personally, with the explanation that the FBI was experiencing difficulty in preparing transcript of those recordings due to a lack of familiarity with the Dallas Police Department radio parlance and terminology. Captain Bowles meticulously reviewed the original belts and discs in order to prepare a transcript. It was necessary to stop and start the playback machine many times in order to prepare an accurate transcript.

The stylus of the dictaphone playback machine was inserted into previously recorded track on many occasions and in many different locations. It is Captain Bowles' opinion that the playback process, including the numerous placings of the stylus on the previously recorded track, may have created degradations of the original recorded material, as well as actually adding new impulses to the track. Captain Bowles stated that he made a reel-to-reel tape recording of the original dictaphone belts using a Wollensak recorder provided him by the FBI during the time he was transcribing the original belts in the early part of 1964. One original copy was provided to the FBI, and he personally retained another copy. The reel-to-reel recordings were made by playing the originals on the appropriate playback devices and placing the microphone of the tape recorder next to the playback speaker. There was no direct wire connection between the playback device and the tape recorder.

(Parenthetically - Jim Bowles released a work of fiction in 2008 called "The JFK Conspiracy - The Missing File".  It posits a theory that law enforcement officers in Texas killed the President. 

Why did Bowles lend his name to such a book? (He died a couple of months ago - his wife died 3-4 years ago). Bowles  told Madeline Brown that he was looking for someone to publish the manuscript that he received from his neighbor George Butler - she gave a version of the Butler manuscript to someone else, and someone else gave a copy to me - it's almost identical to the Bowles' version - wanted to know that It has been brought to my understanding that the original draft of the book (before several re-writes) was written by Lt. Butler with the Dallas sheriff's department - a Klan organizer, not exactly my kind of guy - did you know the Dallas police administration building is named after him?  Butler interrogated Jack Ruby back in 1950 - he tried to rope Penn Jones into his schemes - he used to drive H. L. Hunt all around town - I will be writing about Butler hopefully before the year is out - this coronavirus is great for writers, don't you think - like Harold Weisberg, I think Butler was one of the key people behind the shooting of Oswald that morning.

 

Why did Butler write such a book?  I've read both versions - a Butler version and the Bowles version.  I think it's yet another attempt to head F Troop off in the wrong direction.  (Admittedly, we don't know what the original Butler version said!)

 

A colleague tells me George Butler lived two doors down from District Attorney Henry Wade.  5-6 blocks down lived Lt. Col. Philip Willis, a photographer in Dealey Plaza.  7 blocks in the opposite direction lived FBI investigator James Bookhout.  The four of them frequently ate together at a restaurant on Gaston Street, sometimes with wives and sometimes not.

 

CD 290 and CD 291 are the "rough versions" of the tapes done in early Dec. 1963.  CD 292 and CD 293 are the call numbers and codes.

 

Sawyer provided a version of the tapes - Lumpkin is officer number "5".

 

Bowles has his own version of the tapes, and even a book he wrote on the tapes.

The best version of the Dallas police tapes I know about is the Minneapolis Library Tape - transcribed at, of all places, the Macadams website.  Here is David Dix's story:

I found the tape in 1990 browsing the Minneapolis Public Library. I had just finished reading Crossfire. I hadn't read anything about the assassination for several years. Crossfire re-ignited my old interests in it and I contacted Jim Marrs to ask some questions. I exchanged a couple letters with him. To understand some of what we were talking about, I re-read Lifton's Best Evidence. I was in the Library looking for more material when I accidentally came across the cassette tape.

I checked the tape out, brought it home and began listening to it. I was immediately struck with the fact that it was very different than the transcript in Best Evidence. There were radio transmissions on the tape that weren't in the transcripts. Where the tape and transcript did match, they didn't match completely. Either the transcripts were poorly done or there was intentional changes made.

I called Jim and told him what I had found. He recommended I contact Gary Mack. Mack, he said, was an expert on the various tape versions.

I had a real-time high quality studio copy made of the Library tape and sent the original to Gary. I also sent a copy of the tape to Oliver Stone through a mutual friend in Los Angeles. Stone was just starting filming for "JFK."

Gary gave me his assessment of the tape. We discussed the tape quite a bit over the next few months. Gary wanted to have some technical analyses done but the costs were too high for each of us. He had the tape for a little over a year hoping we could get it analyzed.

After Gary returned the tape in 1993, I sent the original the Assassination Archives to Jim Lesar's safe keeping and sent a copy of the high quality version to The Minneapolis Public Library They have since lost that copy to theft.

In the meantime, I went back to the Library to do some research on the tape itself. The Library still had a physical card file at that time.

The card for the cassette tape had very little on it :"22 November, 1963: THE Dallas Police Tapes Lava Publications, December, 1963" and the classification numbers. (Some time ago, the Library switched to computerized recoirds and destroyed the paper cards. I wasn't able to save it and the computerized record makes no reference to Lava Pulications.)

What struck me immediately was the date.

How did anyone outside the investigation get a hold of a copy of the dictabelts in December of 1963?

Attempts to find Lava Publications failed. I went back through old copies of Books in Print. I recently contacted the research section of the Library of Congress and they have no references to Lava Publications. They did find a reference to the tape by title, however, in the CLC system which lists the holdings of almost every Library in the country.. The only library in the country which has a copy of the tape by the name "22 November, 1963 : The Dallas Police Tapes" is the Minneapolis Public Library. The CLC system had no listing of the publisher or other sourecs for the tape.

I kept wondering "Why Minneapolis?" Who here would have had contact with the Warren Commission investigators and have gotten a copy of the dictabelts as early as December of 1963.

I found a possible lead in Jim Houghan's Spooks. He talked about International Investigations, Incorporated, Indianapolis, Indiana -- Five Eyes as they were known. Hougan said the Kennedys often used Five Eyes as their investigative agency and that many of the company's chief investigators were Kennedy people.

One of the cities where they were watching Hoffa was Minneapolis. According to Hougan, their purpose was to watch the activities of Jimmy Hoffa During that period, 1960 - 1964. Hoffa was working with local union officials and has formed a very tenuous alliance with a local outspoken socialist union leader whose name escapes me.

Going back through the Minneapolis business directories, I found listings for Five Eyes and six names of lead investigators over the five year period. None of the men still live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

My thinking is some Kennedy partisan involved with the investigation had a copy placed in the Minneapolis Public Library. But why? And why under the Lava name and why that date?

The tape, as John and Gary have noted, is of very high quality. I think it was improved somewhat with the digitalization and cleaning I had done. To date, only Don Willis has done extensive research with it that I am aware of and he seems to have found many new things in it. To date, no one has done any acoustical analytical research with it.

...Finally, a little more background on Lumpkin and George Whitmeyer, thanks to Steve Thomas and others...

The link below is to a 1966 Richardson (Texas) Daily News article describes George Lumpkin as “Commandant of the 4150th ARSU Dallas United States Army Reserve School”

Pretty sure ARSU stands for U.S. Army's Southern Command

See  the following pdf:

file:///Users/gwenethdietrich/Downloads/957506999_LumpkinThe_Times_Sun__Jul_15__1962_-1 (1).pdf

Lumpkin taught there.  

With respect to George Whitmeyer, who rode in the pilot car with Lumpkin, Winston Lawson told the HSCA that Whitmeyer "taught army intelligence."

There were two reserve training centers in Dallas.

Muchert Reserve Center
10031 E. Northwest Highway,

Herzog Reserve Center
at 4900 S. Lancaster.

"Mr. Lawson acknowledged that Lt. Col. George Whitmeyer, who was part of the Dallas District U.S. Army Command, who Lawson said "taught Army Intelligence"
1/31/78 HSCA interview of Secret Service agent Winston Lawson (RIF#18010074-10396)

Is this possibly where Whitmeyer and perhaps Lumpkin worked?
Jules E. Muchert Army Reserve Center
10031 E. Northwest Highway
This Property was a part of the original boundaries of White Rock Lake Park. The City of Dallas sold the Property to the Federal Government in 1956 for an Army Reserve Training Center Site.
http://www3.dallascityhall.com/committee_briefings/briefings0607/QOL_061107_muchert.pdf - some nice pictures

In the Mary Ferrell Database
1963-1964 City Directories list George Whitmeyer as Area Commander USA Reserve Training Center.

[Bill Simpich]

Still a work in progress but here's a George Butler-Pat Gannaway chronology.  Masters of the Dallas spooks.  Butler = con artist. 

 

After all the lies are told, I believe Butler was in on Oswald's killing.  Hard to prove he called the shots at the jail.  Better Proof?  All comments welcome.  Bill

 

A note about this chrono:  The most important aspects to me are:

1.  Butler's role in running the show in the police basement on 11/24, and Dallas refusing to address who was calling the shots.

2.  The Sept 63 memo, newly released, that show Jim Hosty, George Butler, the Communist informants and the ultraright weapons runners all penetrating each other's missions, Jack Revill, Masen, Hall, and Seymour...there's a lot going on...there was a big scene going on, and everyone knew it.

3.  The role of former "Communist" William Lowery, who ran a shoe store near the Texas Theater, who had been tailing Joseph Molina for many years until he surfaced in late Sept 63. Did LHO take his place in tailing Molina?  When LHO/LHO's double was seen outside Johnny's shoe store, was he looking for Lowery at that store...did he go to the wrong place?

4.  Butler was a heavy hitter - allegedly connected with the Klan, certainly with the ultraright in many formations.

5.  His former partner was Captain Pat Gannaway - master of the Dallas spooks - Special Service Division chief - ran criminal intelligence, vice and narcotics.  Gannaway is everywhere.

 

Background from John Simkin:  George Butler is indeed an critically important character and has already been discussed here - reprinted below in this particular font.

George Butler was born in Texas in 1907. He joined the Dallas Police Force and in October, 1946, Paul Rowland Jones, an underworld crime boss, contacted Lieutenant Butler and offered him money to help him establish his gambling operation in Dallas. Butler arranged a meeting between Jones and Sheriff Steve Guthrie. Jones offered Guthrie an annual sum of $150,000. This conversation was recorded and Jones was eventually convicted of attempted bribery. Jones appealed his three-year sentence on grounds that he had been entrapped by a well-established corrupt law-enforcement system in Dallas.  Undocumented but colorful article on background here.

According to Seth Kantor: "Butler's... knowledge of organized crime was so intimate that he had been the key man in the department contacted by the Chicago mob when the chose to move into Dallas in 1946 and make police payoffs" and later he was "loaned by the Dallas police department to aid three different U.S. Senate investigatory groups as an expert on gangster operations".

In his dealings with organized crime Butler got to know Jack Ruby. Ruby's sister, Eva Grant had been involved with Paul Rowland Jones and Waldron Duncan in an attempt to transport opium between Chicago and Dallas. Later Butler was to claim that Ruby had been a sleeper (a member of organized crime who maintained the image of a law-abiding citizen. Steve Guthrie told the FBI that Ruby was a front-man in Dallas for the Chicago syndicate.

Butler knew about Ruby and his criminal connections with people like Paul Jones by the late 1940s.  Penn Jones describes him as being head of the Policeman's Union in Dallas for a number of years.

1946-1947:  "The Kefauver Committee conspicuously failed, as Ruby's lawyer Luis Kutner alleged, to expose the extent of the Chicago mob's takeover of Dallas gambling in 1946-47, when Ruby himself moved from Chicago to Dallas.  (Scott, Deep Politics, p. 162)

 

1948:  Butler was working in the narcotics division and following mobsters.  His partner was William Patrick (Pat) Gannaway. 

Pat Gannaway and Butler arrested Paul Jones at the end of the operation.

Ruby was interrogated behind closed doors at a Kefauver Committee hearing by Lt. George Butler of the Dallas Police in 1950.

Kefauver congratulated Butler in 1950 for stopping corruption from reaching Dallas.  (Scott, Deep Politics, p. 152 -  Butler contradicted this statement in 1958)  George Butler, told the FBI (HSCA Volume 9, p. 520😞

Ruby was not involved in the bribery attempt. In fact, he [Butler] had never heard of Ruby until after the investigation and trial had been completed. He stated the way Ruby came into the picture was a number of individuals who were involved in the bribery attempt and in particular Paul Roland Jones began "hanging out" at Ruby's club after the sentence. [unquote]  

Bill Turner wrote that Jones told the FBI he believed Butler was first in earnest and wanted a payoff, desisting only when he learned the Texas Rangers were wise to the negotiations."  

According to Michael Benson, Butler was an associate of Haroldson L. Hunt.   His source was probably  Bill Turner, who wrote that Butler made a point of driving H.L. Hunt to his speaking engagements.

 

1955:   Butler transferred from the field of racketeers and mobsters and into the juvenile division.  (Stated in the 1958 testimony, below)

 

1958: With RFK asking the questions, Butler testified at the Investigation of improper activities in the labor or management field. Hearings before the Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field

Butler testified mainly about how the mob moved in during the late 40s with their coin-operated machines into Dallas and had an 18  million dollar enterprise - hardly what he testified in 1950.

            Gambling and prostitution were endemic in Dallas during this period, so Butler was putting on RFK or RFK was letting it happen for political reasons.  This document shows mobster Pat Manning promising Butler that gambling was all the mob wanted, and he would prevent other stuff from happening.

 

In 1961 - Butler also provided information to W. Penn Jones Jr. According to Jones, Butler told him that 50% of the Dallas Police Department were also members of the Ku Klux Klan.  More to the point, he also wanted Jones to start a statewide Klan newspaper with him!  (Bill Turner, Ramparts, June 1967)

Late Nov 61, Jack Revill, Lowery, DL-16-S (who reported on LHO that year), DL-6-S, and DL-107-C aka Earl Harvey all said that Minutemen were unknown to them.

4/30/62 Penn Jones tells FBI Edgar Wesley Seay, employee of Gen Walker, tried to burn down his newspaper with gallon can of gas w paper fuse thrown thru front door.

8/23/62  Felix Botello/DL-18-S reports that National Indignation Convention (Birch affiliate) is active in Dallas.

10/62:  Butler is the subject of electronic surveillance in Las Vegas.  At least five tapes.

5/10/63:  First, in a conversation between Jerry Gordon and Morris Lansburgh. In this conversation, Gordon is referring to hotel bookings for the day's of May 7, 8, 9, and 10, 1963. At one point in the conversation, Gordon states, "10th down, thirty-five, seven, zero, two [pause] yes sir! [Pause] Some of your friends from Texas"..........

On May 12 1963, [Jerry] Gordon is having a discussion with Sam Belkin, a casino credit manager concerning customers at the casino who owe the casino money......Gordon is reading off the names to Belkin, and Belkin is cross-referencing them against a list he has, after running down the 36th name, Sam Gordon.....five. the following,"...........BUTLER......Paid..."

So, the conversation implies, at least by what Gordon states to Lansburgh, that a Dallas police Lieutenant is on familiar terms with Morris Lansburgh. If that were the case it belies the fact that with the assassination seven months away, there is good reason to suspect the charge made through the years that there were some bad apples on the Dallas police force was not inaccurate; In that context, a Dallas detective staying at the Flamingo in Vegas. 

9/3/63: Hosty gets a hot tip from Donald Kemp that Edward Schwille of Dallas is active with a group similar to the Minutemen - Revill and everyone else are saying no knowledge of them in Dallas.  Schwille wrote a letter on 11/26/63 seeking best evidence on Jack Ruby, knew Jack had Jake Ehrlich (note:  great criminal attorney who could have won Ruby's case if Belli hadn't moved in w/his mob connections).   

Schwille, the leader, supplied weapons to Ashland Burchwell in 1962, weapons seized by DPD before Burchwell could leave Dallas for Oxford, MI to join Walker in the fight against Meredith.  Burchwell has been working with Felix Botello, former DL-18-S, who used to work with Lowery in the Communist Party and knew (as T-1) that Joe Molina would never join the Communist Party.  

Molina worked with the American GI Forum, which was also spied on by Lowery and friends.   Lowery became chairman of the American GI Forum.

Botello and Burchwell said they disagreed w. Minuteman leader Robert DePugh and refuse to align with him and the Minutemen.

9/9/63:  Hosty's informant is also his close friend, a Republican party activist.  Although Hosty claims to be a JFK man and a Democrat, Weisberg found that both he and Revill "were as far to the right as even Dallas permits" (p. 1 of 😎

9/23/63:  Bill Lowery was an FBI infiltration agent into the CPUSA. Additionally, he was co-founder of the Dallas chapter of the GI Forum with Joe Molina and others including Felix G. Botello who had also been a security informant against the extreme right (DL T-18-S) and was associated with Ashland Burchall in a Minutemen like group. Burchall had served under Edwin Walker in Germany. 

The FBI considered Walker an advisor to the Minutemen in Texas.

Jerry Shinley:  John Stanford and William Lowery had been the subject of wide-spread publicity about two months before the assassination. John Stanford, then a resident of San Antonio, was being investigated by Texas state and Bexar County authorities because of his alleged membership in the Communist party. In July of 1963, U. S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy asked Texas officials to refrain from taking action against Stanford until after the completion of Federal proceedings. (San Antonio Express, p. 5-A) On September 23, 1963, a hearing on Stanford was held before the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB) in Washington. One of those testifying was William J. Lowery, who revealed that he had been acting as an FBI informant within the Communist Party since 1945. (Dallas Morning News, September 26, 1963, s. 1, p. 1; San Antonio Express, September 24, 1963, p. 1- A) 

Lowery's testimony that he had infiltrated the American G. I. Forum and other reputable groups created some controversy. An FBI spokesman denied that the FBI had ordered the infiltrations and said Lowery had been following the orders of the Communist Party in joining those groups. (San Antonio Express, September 25, 1963, p. 10-D; September 27, 1963, p. 5-B) In December, state and county officials raided the home of John Stanford and seized many of his papers and belongings. (San Antonio Express, December 28, 163, p. 1-A). Thus, the Dallas Police were suspicious of Molina because he was associated with a man who had been identified as an FBI informant on the front page of a Dallas newspaper. During his testimony before the Warren Commission, Molina attempted to talk about Bill Lowery, but was cut short by Commission counsel, Joseph A. Ball. (6 H 373) Another question of interest in this matter is whether Lee Harvey Oswald might have had any contact with Lowery or Stanford. Also, the publicity Lowery received may have had some influence on later rumors that Oswald was himself an FBI informant.

Lowery’s September 1963 testimony before the SACB in Washington spelled the end of his undercover career. But that opened the door for someone else to take over “surveillance”  of Molina, the token subversive.  Did Oswald do it?

 Lowery's testimony was that he had infiltrated this and "other groups" on behalf of the FBI. The FBI actually went to press denying it!

10/1/63  Butler had a tape of the "karate guy" who made anti-JFK remarks at an anti-Castro Oct meeting in Farmers Branch.  Karate guy spoke there with Martino, Father Machann, Mrs. Trudy Castorr.  Tapes created by Irving chiropractors, husband and wife, "Roeder" or "Rowder".  (Weisberg files)

Trudy Castorr discusses at great length how Butler was also pals with Sylvia Odio and got deep inside information from the whole Dallas Cuban crowd.  Trudy Castorr made a point of giving him letters from Lucille Connell about Odio.  It turns out Sylvia Odio was the cousin of Marcella Insua, the daughter of Joaquin Insua (informant and the head of Catholic Cuban Relief in Dallas).  

Weisberg considered Butler and Revill the most important police witnesses.

10/17/63 Jack Revill says on this date William Seymour and Loran Hall passed thru Dallas - Minutemen - and handling narcotics destined to go to Cuba as medical supplies.

Early November 1963:  Waldo also contacted Mark Lane and informed him that he had discovered that Jack Ruby, J. D. Tippit and Bernard Weismann had a meeting at the Carousel Club eight days before the assassination. Waldo added that he was too scared to publish the story and other information that he had about the assassination. Lane introduced Waldo to Dorothy Kilgallen. Her article on the Tippit, Ruby and Weissman meeting appeared on the front page of the Journal American.  (Lee Israel, Kilgallen (1979))

I believe that this information about the meeting at the Carousel Club originally came from Butler. It is possible that it was Butler who provided Dorothy Kilgallen with the information about Jesse Curry's tapes. 

Sylvia Meagher later claimed that Butler gave contradictory information to the FBI and to the press about Ruby’s past criminal associations and activities.

The Dallas Police website had some information on George Butler (for many years he was President of the Dallas Police Association. In fact, the Dallas Police Association headquarters building has been officially named the “George E. Butler Building” in his honor.  (I visited it at 9:30 am the last Monday of Nov. 2018 - the reception was hostile just from knocking at the door - then I told them I was a JFK researcher!  Definitely worth visiting - you might meet someone more reasonable - just one block from Lorenzo Hotel.)

Trudy Castorr says she heard Butler was involved with the Minutemen and with the Cubans within the police dept.  Weisberg mentions he thought Butler was involved in a mix-up because the car was not in place - that got Oswald shot by Ruby

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/C%20Disk/Castorr%20L%20Robert%20Colonel/Item%2023.pdf

 

11/20/63: Masen arrested, 5 foot 5, 130 pounds, small guy.  Strongly sympathetic with Minutemen.

 

11/21/63:  Entire operational plan for the motorcade is conducted in Curry's office.  

Gannaway, Sawyer (guarded the TSBD), Lumpkin (drove pilot car w/radio communications), SS members Forrest Sorrels and Winston Lawson among the fourteen present.   Lawson reduced the # of motorcycles w/President from 4 to 2 on each side.  

 

11/22/63 The official report indicates that homicide officers found the shells in the TSBD - when in fact it was Jerry Hill and/or Luke Mooney.  "Lumpkin then instructed Revill to organize his team against the east wall...and make a systematic search...a member of Revill's searching party...found the rifle."

 

11/22/63:  Lowery's shoe store was just west of the Texas Theatre on Jefferson. Did Oswald confuse the Brewer shoestore with Lowery's? 

 

Here is a photo of Lowery at his shoe store...

 

Oswald may have been placed in the TSBD to monitor American GI Forum's Joseph Molina to replace Lowery.  Molina's home was searched in the middle of the night after the assassination, and he spent most of 11/23 in interrogation at the police station.

 

11/22/63:  Butler saw Ruby on this day in City Hall, but not on Sat or Sun.

 

11/22/63:  Houston Chronicle reported: "Oswald, who had been interviewed by the FBI only six days before [the assassination], became important to the police only after he missed an employee roll call soon afterwards. 'He was the only one who couldn't be accounted for,' Detective Capt. Pat Gannaway said.    There was no roll call and many employees could not be accounted for.

 

11/22/63  Pat Gannaway was the chief of the DPD Special Services Bureau.  His subordinate Bill Biggio was directing police intelligence communications at the Fair Park office on 11/22.  (source:  Earl Golz)

 

Jack Revill, Don Stringfellow, Bill Biggio and all the members of criminal intelligence division reported directly to Gannaway.  So did vice and narcotics.  Gannaway was a reserve Army Intelligence officer - like many of the DPD officers.  The famous report of Harvey Lee Oswald and the employees of the TSBD went from Revill to Gannaway.

 

Ruby would frequent the Special Services Bureau since 1956 to arrange for the city licenses that he needed to operate his nightclubs in Dallas.  (pp. 2-3)   The source for this information, Mary Hartford, was Gannaway's secretary from 1956-62.  Another police chief described Hartford as possibly Ruby's "mistress" because their relationship was so close.  

 

Gannaway had the six members of the Indignant White Citizen's Council at the Trade Mart "taken into custody" to prevent them from being assaulted after the killing of JFK.  A suit was filed - they lost.

 

11/22/23 aftermath - Walker identified as a friend of Earl Lively, writer for American Mercury magazine.  Walker was saying LHO and Ruby were seen together prior to 11/22 - citizens suspected Walker of involvement in JFK assassination.

 

Again, Ruby and George Butler  knew each other from the Kefauver Committee investigation of 1950 - see above.

 

11/23/63, 2 am:  The Dallas police come barging into Joe Molina's home in the middle of the night and have a search warrant for his place.  Their leader is Pat Gannaway, Butler's ex-partner.  Nothing turns up, but they strongly suggest Molina come to the station the following morning, he complies.

 

11/23/63:  When James Worrell tried to report his observations of the killing on 11/23/63 following Curry's request for witnesses to come forward, Lt Butler fielded Worrell's call.  What was Butler doing out at Farmers Branch, it was a small town?  I thought he was working juvie, what's he doing here? My  bet is that the hottest witness calls went directly to Butler so he could decide how to dispose of them.  

http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=38&relPageId=206&search=%22lt._butler%22

 

An extra bullet was found by a postman below the 6th floor - it was a 30 06 cartridge. WFAA's Bert Shipp wound up with it on 11/23.  The bullet was given to George Butler - who wound up giving it back to the TV employee!

 

11/24/63:   Found a legible copy of the diagram of the Dallas police basement at p. 43 - pp. 44-46 has the same list of officers.  

 

11/24/63:   Bill Turner alleged that Butler was in charge of the Oswald transfer, was one of the biggest Klan leaders around, and gave the "all clear" to bring him into the basement.   Waldo corroborates all of Turner's points in this memo to Weisberg - written from Mexico!

 

Bill Turner was unequivocal that Butler was the man who had the overall responsibility for the transfer of Oswald.

 

Between 10-11 am, Thayer Waldo (in a 12/2/63 FBI interview) said that the reporters were standing outside on Commerce Street when Butler came up to them and told them "Come in."  They proceeded to enter where they were checked for weapons.

 

10:45 am:  The reason for the delay in moving Oswald is that they needed to obtain armored vehicles - which didn't arrive until this time.   Later, Curry - who was at the Homicide Bureau - and others changed their minds and told Asst Chief Stevenson they had decided to use detective cars to transport LHO, using the armored vehicles as a decoy.   

 

11 am:  Lt. Butler's statement - written 11/30/63, says he and several other detectives reported to Captain O.A. Jones, "who stationed the detectives where he wanted them".  Chief Batchelor, Sgt. Pat Dean and Butler searched the armored car before LHO came down.  Dean allegedly told Butler that Batchelor wanted Butler to ride in the armored car with LHO.

 

Jones said Deputy Stevenson summoned him at 11 am and told him to move a few detectives "where needed".  He was plainly not in charge.

 

Stevenson said Cecil Tolbert was in charge of patrolmen; Jones was in charge of detectives, and "homicide officers" were in charge of actual transport of LHO.

 

At 11:15, Stevenson met Lumpkin on the third floor elevator, and told him of the change in plans on the way to the basement.  On arrival in the basement, Stevenson told Batchelor and Jones.   

 

Fort Worth Telegram journalist Thayer Waldo said that the morning of 11/24, he never saw anyone trembling like Butler. 

 

Waldo wrote in a long letter that he was stunned when Patrick Dean was introduced to the Ruby jury as the officer in charge of security at the jail that morning, rather than Butler.

 

Butler was busy on 11/24/63.  On 24th November, 1963, Jesse Curry decided to transfer Lee Harvey Oswald to the county jail. Will Fritz placed Butler in immediate charge of the transfer. 

Despite his role in the transfer of Oswald to the county jail and his long term relationship with Ruby, Butler was not interviewed by the Warren Commission. 

 

Butler is listed as #13 in this schematic diagram of the police basement, but portions appear missing, I can't find anyone in this diagram which would otherwise be very useful.

 

In his testimony to the commission, Thayer Waldo of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, claimed that during the transfer Butler "was an extremely nervous man, so nervous that when I was standing asking him a question after I had entered the ramp and gotten down to the basement area, just moments before Oswald was brought down, he was standing profile to me and I noticed his lips trembling as he listened and waited for my answer. It was simply a physical characteristic. I had by then spent enough time talking to this man so that it struck me as something totally out of character."

 

According to Harold Weisberg, Butler prematurely gave the signal to bring out Oswald.  Bill Turner and Penn Jones described Butler as high up in the Klan.  Even an FBI memo describes him as way to the right. Butler was also pals with Sylvia Odio and the whole Dallas Cuban crowd.

 

Weisberg wrote that if Butler had waited, the auto would have been parked and blocked the area where Ruby broke through to point his pistol at Oswald.  

 

Butler is quoted as saying in those final seconds:  "He'll never make it to the street."

 

As you can see in the youtube video starting at 1:41, Fritz is eight feet in front of Oswald.  The story goes that Ruby emerged from the crowd with detective Blackie Harrison and reserve sergeant Kenneth Croy were his blocking fullbacks.  The WC questioned Croy very closely - this is the guy who "found Oswald's wallet" from an unidentified bystander at the Tippit crime scene, and never reported it to anyone for forty years.

 

This meant that Oswald was exposed to an assault similar to what happened when the Secret Service told the patrolmen not to flank JFK on their motorcycles.  Meanwhile, the officers were blinded by the burst of television lights when Oswald came on the scene.  

I wonder if Fritz actually made a gesture for Ruby to make his move?  

 

The pickup car was so close to position that within seconds of Ruby firing the shot, the car tapped Ruby right in the butt!  You can see it on the video. 

 

 

Butler is the crucial link between the Dallas Police Dept and the Dallas Cubans and their friends (the Castorrs, the Odios, Connell, etc.; see this lengthy Harold Weisberg interview with the Castorrs)  He was pals with all of them.

 

Jan Stevens' story on Butler and Fritz is a good analysis and highly worth reading - it jibes with my review of the videotape.  He also points out Fritz's lack of a reaction to the shot - that they are trained to react - and that anyone with a brain in their head would have used a human shield to protect LHO.

 

The pistol holster found at Ruby's home was "musty and moldy, for a snub-nose". (p. 45 of 49)

 

Passes for the Carousel Club included No. 227 for  Dallas police officer Ray Hawkins (p. 26 of 96)   But the DPD 1/9/64 report about these passes does not include Hawkins' name!  The negative template at work. (pages 37-40 of 96)

The 11/24/63 FBI report does have Hawkins' name.   But it doesn't have the names of Dallas deputy sheriff Buddy Walthers, or Records Building deputy Travis Hall, both of whom are important.

 

The list of cards (see p. 37 of 96) names Deputy sheriff Buddy Walthers (number 167) and Travis Hall, a county clerk deputy at the Records Bldg (number 207)  but their actual cards cannot be found either in the xeroxed cards (pp. 15-30 of 96) or in the 11/24/63 FBI report!   Walthers was the critical source for the 3126 Harlandale House of Cubans.  Travis Hall, described by the FBI as a "cashier" - was given his card by Jack Ruby at the County Records Building on 11/19/63, after seeing Jack at the Records Building earlier that month.   A list of Carousel members obtained on 11/28/63 from Monte Timmons also omits the names of Hawkins - but "deputy Hall" and "deputy Walthers" are on there!

 

Capt. Westbrook wound up sending the card and a note to Chief Curry on 12/12/63 where Hawkins said he had not yet received the card - the problem is that Hawkins signed the card, so he had certainly received it!

 

Hawkins was the biggest problem.

Corporal Ray Hawkins was in the area as officers were dispatched  to look for the suspect who shot Officer Tippit. Corporal Hawkins responded and drove by 10th and Patton then converged on the Texas Theater when information came out that the suspect may have entered the theater.  Corporal Hawkins and his cover squads met a witness at the back door of the Texas Theater.  Upon entering, they conducted a row-by-row search. As officers neared Oswald, he jumped up and pulled out a pistol. Officers subdued Oswald after a struggle. Corporal Ray Hawkins went down in history as the officer who handcuffed Lee Harvey Oswald. 

 

11/25/63  Gannaway's records list Ruby as a "sex deviate".   

 

11/27/63 Gannaway is told by Chicago PD that Jack Ruby is Not the Jack Rubenstein in the HUAC records (this is the 1947 document referring to Jack Rubenstein as part of the staff of Richard Nixon)  (p. 3 of 96)

 

 

11/27/63 Seth Kantor reported Curry was quietly conducting a probe of 50 detectives and uniformed officers to see if one or more of them aided Ruby.

 

12/3/63:  Gannaway got a "tip" from fellow detective H.W. Hart that Ruby rented a place next door to him for Lee Oswald in the Oak Lawn neighborhood.  Ruby lived at 223 Ewing.

 

On 9th December, 1963, Jack Revill wrote to Jesse Curry claiming that Butler: "related that he had information that Lee Harvey Oswald was the illegitimate son of Jack Ruby. Lieutenant Butler further stated that he had information that Jack Ruby had applied for a visa to Mexico about the same time that Lee Harvey Oswald visited that country. He suggested that we contact the Mexican Consul to confirm this information."

 

12/9/63:  FBI report says Butler told them someone must have pressured Curry to bring out the prisoner while the news media was there - wouldn't say who.

 

This story, run in the 12/15/63 Oklahoman, states that "Butler cannot be found"...That was simply not true - it was three weeks after the assassination - but Butler may have been lying low about that time and getting his ducks in a row.

 

In "Killing the Truth", Harry Livingstone, p. 540, "Healey" says "..Maurice "Monk" Baker...was shot through the mouth (on 12/3/63).  Baker lived on North Beckley Street near Oswald's rooming house... I don't think Butler [Lieutenant George Butler] was involved...He was on the outs with Curry, Fritz, and Gannaway. He was out of the loop. Right wing though he may be, he wouldn't have been involved.  Some thought that Butler had helped Assistant Chief of Police Charles Batchelor take Ruby into the police station to kill Oswald "Nobody trusted Butler," Healey told me.

 

 

1/13/64  The plan is... 

 

George Butler and Robert Morris helping OSI (Air Force) officer Earl Lively with book on Oswald, also working with Lowery.  Branigan tells Sullivan that Shanklin should tell Curry to impress upon Butler the need to back off feeding info about Oswald and the FPCC to Lively.   Anticommunist book would be on LHO, FPCC, their connections with Communism.

 

1/13/64:  Lowery was contacted by Lively, a Dallas resident writing an anticommunist book that will stress Oswald's connection with the FPCC.

 

 

1/20/64:  To: W.C. Sullivan Date 1/20/64  (Thanks David Boylan!)

From W. A. Branigan

Subject: Lee Harvey Oswald, IS –R-CUBA

By airtel 1-13-64, Dallas Office reported that on 1-4-64 William James Lowery, Jr. a former security informant of the Dallas Office, reported that he had been contacted by Earl Lively, Jr., of Dallas, Texas. Lowery stated Lively is reported writing an anticommunist book which will stress the Fair Play for Cuba Committee connections of Lee Harvey Oswald. Lively showed Lowery a letter from Herbert Philbrick, former Communist Party member who has testified on behalf of the Government concerning communist activities. According to Lively, Philbrick plans to be in Dallas soon and desires to meet Lowery.

Lively further informed Lowery that he desired Lowery’s assistance in writing his book. He stated that Dr. Robert Morris, former counsel to the Senate Internal Security Committee under Senator McCarthy, was assisting him and Lt. George Butler of the Dallas Police Department was also assisting him. Lively added that Lt. George Butler of the Dallas PD was going to try to get any information he could that the FBI turned over to the Dallas Police Department in connection with the Lee Harvey Oswald case.

In connection with Lowery mentioned above, ha was a member of and active in the Communist Party on a local and state basis from September 23, 1945 to September 23, 1963. He has also testified for the Government before the Subversive Activities Control Board.

Our indices indicate Earl Lively, Jr., probably is identical to Earl William Lively, Jr. In 1962, Office of Special Investigations, Air Force (OSI), furnished us information that Lively was a member of the Air National Guard and at that time was a student of the Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. He was investigated by OSI since a national agency check revealed he was a subscriber to “The Worker” and the “Midweek Worker,” both communist publications. Individuals interviewed by OSI reported Lively was extremely anticommunist and as being extremely rightist in his political views. They reported in their opinion Lively subscribed to communist publications only to obtain background information on the Communist Party line. They also reported Lively extremely anti-Fidel Castro.

OBSERVATIONS:

In view of the serious allegation that Lt. Butler of the Dallas Police Department is involved in scheme to furnish FBI data to Earl Lively, Jr., desirable we have SAC, Dallas personally discuss this allegation with the head of the Dallas Police Department and impress upon him the undesirability of Lt. Butler being involved with such a scheme as alleged by our source. Inasmuch as Lowery has testified for the Government before the Subversive Activities Control Board, and is no longer a security informant, we will not jeopardize an important informant situation by discussing his allegation with the head of the Dallas Police Department.

ACTION:

Attached is a teletype to SAC, Dallas, instructing the SAC, Dallas, to personally contact the head of Dallas Police Department and alert him to the information furnished by Lowery and impress upon him the undesirability of individuals in his department divulging to unauthorized individuals data furnished the Dallas Police Department by the FBI. We are also instructing SAC, Dallas, to request the that the head of the Dallas Police Department determine whether Lt. George Butler of the Dallas Police Department is involved in a scheme to furnish FBI data to Lively as alleged by Lowery.

 

1/21/64 Lenihan sends memo to Shanklin - Butler's name is redacted.

In the clear in this version.

 

1/22/64 Former Security informant to Dallas office of FBI is redacted - this is a reference to Lowery, who is talking with Butler - Butler is "allegedly involved in scheme to furnish FBI data to DLPD and to Earl Lively, Jr."  Told Shanklin to speak to Curry to determine if Butler's involvement in scheme is "true".

 

1/22/64:  Butler was suspected by the Dallas FBI of being involved with a scheme involving the Oswald file by January 1964, and was described as being "pretty far right" by Curry - Curry assured that Fritz had custody of the Oswald file under lock and key, but that he would speak to Butler.

 

1/22/64:  DL 119-R is T-1  Is he Butler?  T-1 tells SA Sam Cotton that the group linked with the Association of Arkansas Klans of the KKK is the Minutemen.  He had never heard of the group in Missouri.  He may be a Missouri informant.

DL 119-R is found in this discussion with Bill Williams of the Arkansas Klan in an attempt to find Minutemen in this area - marginalia makes me think that this individual might be "Butler".

 

1/28/64:  Shanklin to Director:  Butler told Curry he had met with Lively at Robert Morris' home, but that there was no agreement to obtain any documents for Lively.

 

2/11/64 Butler memo - neighboring counties have nothing on Minutemen- sends copy to Hosty.

 

2/28/64 Donald Kemp, the source that blew everything open on 9/9/63, said it has been very quiet since 11/22/63.

 

3/17/64 Lively trying to interview William Lowery.  Weyl claims Marguerite used to be a member of the Communist Party.   Lowery thinks Lively is an "ultra rightist".

 

4/24/64  Rankin at Warren Commission is stunned by testimony of Detectives Archer, McMillon, Leavelle, Capt. King, Sgt. Dean - all of them testified about Ruby's malice towards LHO at trial - no such statements made pre-trial.   SS agent Forrest Sorrels provided by phone to DPD on 12/17/63 the claim that Ruby said at the police dept one time that "he killed the son of a bitch" or words to that effect.  No such claim was ever made by Sorrels in any other setting.

 

8/11/64:  22 tape recordings of Butler, Ruby and Sheriff Guthrie in 1946 were given by Butler to Dallas FBI office - are they at the Archives?  It looks like WC got ahold of these, and Ruby was not on them - it may have been too early, they didn't actually talk until 1950 or so.

 

11/64 Lowery, source in american gi forum, was snitch of fain and maybe stringfellow as well
https://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=77882&relPageId=2

 

7/10/67 Lively called Lowery, chatting about CP member John Stanford's recent visit to Mexico.  Lowery still occasional FBI contact.  Lively introduced Lowery to Herbert Philbrick in 64 or so.

 

7/11/67 Lowery id'd as former DL-2-S

 

 

[Paul Brancato]

Bill - have you read Bowles’ book?

[Bill Simpich]

Yes.  I consider it a disinformation epic written by Butler - Bowles changed it I don't know how many times probably to sanitize it even further - and put it out to the world to make a buck and keep everyone even more confused - Bowles was a lone gunman fanatic and carried the water for DPD from day 1 - sanitizing the radio log itself and creating endless confusion in that sphere as well.

[David Boylan]

Butler's buddy would have been the "Reverend" Roy E. Davis. He was also Imperial Grand Dragon of the KKK. If my memory is still working, Butler contacted him about the Wanted for Treason posters. Butler said he knew Davis and that Davis didn't print them. Roy Davis was also an acquaintance of Joe Milteer.

Reverend Roy E. Davis

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=123128&search="roy_davis"#relPageId=6&tab=page

 

Imperial Grand Dragon

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10490&relPageId=1120&search="roy_davis"

 

Raigorodsky , Jack Revill.  Raigorodsky was a friend of George DeMorhenschildt

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=123128&relPageId=6&search="roy_davis"

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=146185&relPageId=59&search=raigorodsky

 

Davis used to publish the Fiery Cross back in the 1960's. It looks like Robert Shelton took over publishing.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=95659&relPageId=348&search="the_fiery cross"

 

Interesting that number 23 in this doc on the MLK assassination was Roy Hargraves.

 

[Bill Simpich]

David, Jeffrey Caufield's book "General Walker and the Murder of President Kennedy" is a very long book and I have never read it through so it's hard for me to analyze it.

I know I agree on some things with Caufield, and disagree on other things he believes.

The center of his argument, which I have not yet fully studied, is that "(Edwin) Walker joined other disgruntled former military officers and oversaw a plot to assassinate a large number of people in power positions in the government and in industry...the FBI knew full well about the plot, which was aborted in early 1963 after low-level members of the conspiracy were brought in for questioning...the FBI continued to monitor Walker and the other extremists and learned, in October of 1963, that members of the group planned to murder President Kennedy...thirteen days before Kennedy's murder, the FBI learned the plot was in the works, in what would turn out to be the exact detail in which the Dallas murder was carried out...(Jack) Ruby testified about the Warren Commission and alluded to General Walker's role in the assassination but he was not taken seriously."

He sure does make an interesting statement at p. 483, which should be noted as you brought up R. E. Davis as a buddy of George Butler:

"Was J.D. Tippit involved in the assassination conspiracy?  Willie Somersett said he was.  Somersett told Miami police intelligence that Tippit, Theodore 'Ted' Jackman were the actual shooters of the President.  Somersett did not elaborate, and nothing more is known about the allegation.

"Dealing with an allegation like Somersett's - from a single source, without any other serious corroboration - is problematic.  However, Somersett has never been shown to have given false or misleading information before.

"What's more, anyone who had advance knowledge of the plot to kill President Kennedy (and, later, Martin Luther King, Jr.) as Somersett did, deserves to be taken very seriously.

"What strengthens Somersett's allegation is that Jackson and Davis, the other two named gunmen, were associates of General Walker. 

"A letter from General (Pedro) del Valle to General Walker (noted in Chapter Eight) recommended Jackman to General Walker as a man who could provide him with pictures and names of individuals (who should be targeted)..."

[Paul Brancato]

After reading McBride’s book I took a long look at Tippit’s alibi. It doesn’t hold up. I cannot recall all the details. What I remember is that the gas station where Tippit was seen by several reliable witnesses 15 minutes after the assassination was a short drive from Dealey Plaza. He was sitting in his police car. His main alibi for where he was around noon was provided a decade later. That story has him picking up a suspected shoplifter (responding to a call reporting the incident) and bringing him into a police station for booking. I believe it was McBride who pointed out that there is no police record of the subject being booked. And of course McBride interviewed Tippit’s 100 year old father  (something no one else had done) who told him that his son was a crack shot. 

[Anthony Thorne]

If you run with that idea - and it certainly sounds possible - it's really something to think of the planning behind Tippit being one of the shooters, and then him being killed minutes after the assassination. Dead men tell no tales, obviously. But if that's what happened, it also makes you wonder who behind the scenes was a friend of Tippit's, and who wasn't.

If Tippit was a featured shooter who was killed right afterwards, it would be another reminder to everyone to keep their mouths shut forever, not that a reminder was probably needed. But on the off chance that things somehow went bad or were exposed in the weeks that followed, it would be a useful ground rule to have in place, right from day one.

[Steve Thomas]

3 hours ago, Bill Simpich said:

 

The center of his argument, which I have not yet fully studied, is that "(Edwin) Walker joined other disgruntled former military officers and oversaw a plot to assassinate a large number of people in power positions in the government and in industry.

 

Bill,

Did you run across the name J. Carlin Brandt?

From Weisberg's collection:

"4. J. CARLIN BRANDT, chief, accounting clerk for Mobil Oil, moved from 601 N. Ewing St. in 1963 to 223 S. Ewing, Jack Ruby’s apartment house. Brandt is the name of the prime suspect in the Minute Man recruitment effort in the Matamorros bar six weeks before the assassination who told Alan Dale’s informant that the Minute Men had a contract to kill JFK. The latter Brandt - one John Brandt, combination gunsmith and Minute Man from the Ray Brantley circle in Dallas, a former employee of Brantley’s, dropped out of directory listings after the assassination, and Penn Jones advises via Mary now that John Brandt is living covertly at 2960 Colfing Green, Farmers Branch, Texas, another widely recognized residential area of Dallas, which was a hot-bed of anti-castro speeches and activities prior to the assassination. At the time of the killing, JOHN 3RANDT was living at 801 Rindie, Irving. He was given a job by LING-TEMPCO-VAUGHT, than disappeared about a year ago, ostensibly for an operation, and went into his present hiding in Farmers Branch."

 

Mac Wallace went to work for LTV too.

Steve Thomas