Charles "Boots" Askins, Harlon B. Carter and the Dallas INS

[Leslie Sharp]

 

Draft preview of Continuity of the Coup in Dallas (@copyright — softcover edition in progress)

In pursuit of who might have been in a position to order, conceal, and/or confuse details surrounding the detainment of two (alleged) French citizens in Dallas within hours of the assassination of Kennedy, I have identified the Southwest Region head of Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS), Texas native Harlon B. Carter, as the primary candidate. 

From Carter's November 22, 1991, New York Times obituary,

Young Mr. Carter went on to graduate from the University of Texas and Emory Law School. Following in the footsteps of his father, he joined the United States Border Patrol. He rose rapidly, and was chief of the entire patrol from 1950 to 1957. He was commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Southwestern region from 1961 to 1970, when he retired after 34 years with the Government.

Upon reading of Mr. Carter's history with US Border Patrol, it was logical to consider the possibility he knew, personally, fellow Texan and renowned marksman Charles "Boots" Askins, the psychopathic gunman named in the 1963 datebook maintained by Pierre Lafitte. 

Indeed, Boots Askins and Harlon Carter had known each other for more than a decade if not longer: 

The 1952 model was a heavy barrel OP frame, .38 Special, rollmarked on the barrel "Border Patrol". Just issued one year, about 500 made. However, the United States Immigration and Border Patrol (USIBP) also were issued New Services before WWII. Col. Askins was the head of the service for a time and he and Harlon Carter (later president of the NRA) were said to have personally sighted in the New Services before they were issued to agents.

Also, from a long running credible gun afficionado chatroom, Word was that until Harlon Carter white-washed him, [Askins] was also persona non grata with the NRA.

Harlon B. Carter is best known for having almost single-handedly increased membership in the National Rife Association three-fold during his tenure as president and board member.  He led the infamous "Revolt at Cincinnati" also called the "Cincinnati Coup" which irreparably altered the course of the NRA from that of a noble association of hunters, sportsmen, gun enthusiasts and skilled marksmen to one of the most powerful, and some argue dangerous, lobbies in our country today. 

The best primer to Harlon B. Carter is found here:

How the Modern NRA Was Born at the Border

Watch our release of documentary short The Rifleman, which examines how NRA head Harlon Carter fused gun rights, immigration enforcement, and white supremacy. Then read an interview with filmmaker Sierra Pettengill and historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.

In making The Rifleman, I was interested in using Carter’s life to tell the story of the NRA beyond the limited context of the current debate over gun control, and instead place it in the broader context of how gun ownership has, since early in the nation’s founding, been central to enforcing a white nationalist vision of the United States. This continues the work of the films I have been making for the last eight or so years, which all explore how white supremacy operates within the mainstream, whether it’s through the proliferation of Confederate monuments (Graven Image, 2017) or the rise of the Tea Party (Town Hall, 2013, codirected with Jamila Wignot).

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/how-the-modern-nra-was-born-at-the-border/ 

For our interests, it is Carter's history with expert marksman Charles Askins — named along with Texas native Canon (Col. Jack) known for having headed General Charles Willoughby's Z. Org during the Korean War — in the Lafitte datebook laying out the unfolding of Project Lancelot.

Hired Guns

Askins 

—Lafitte datebook, September 12, 1963

 

Canon-- S + V?

—Lafitte datebook, September 14 1963

 

 

Askins - Willoughby OK

—Lafitte datebook, October 2, 1963

 

Willoughby team – Canon (Z org) D.

—Lafitte datebook, November 21, 1963
 

Col. Charles “Boots” Askins, Jr.

Boots Askins was a storied gunman in Texas since the early 1930s, and had moved within far-right circles all his life. Author Jeffrey Caufield, in his study of the assassination of JFK, features a letter from Joseph Milteer (himself a racist and far right associate of Willoughby and Walker) to Charles Askins pertaining to a forthcoming meeting of one of the myriad clandestine organizations that the radical right was running during the ’60s, indicating very “hush-hush” stuff. 

            Born in October 1907, the son of a prominent hunter and writer, Askins Jr. followed in his father’s footprints and, according to legend, "left some marks deeper than his dad." Prior to enlisting in the US Army, Askins had served in the US Forest Service and Border Patrol in the American Southwest. 

            During WWII, he served as a battlefield recovery officer, making landings in North Africa, Italy, and D-day. Following the war, he was posted in Spain as an attaché to the American embassy, assisting Franco’s administration in rebuilding the arms and ammunition factories after the war. This is but one clue that Askins was well known to General Willoughby and through that connection, he knew fellow Texan “Cactus Jack” Canon. In his role at the embassy in Madrid, Askins undoubtedly encountered Johannes Bernhardt of SOFINDUS, Otto Skorzeny, and Victor Oswald, all of whom need no further introduction to our reader. As attaché, Askins would also have been familiar with US Embassy officials including CIA agent Al Ulmer, and fellow attaché Jere Wittington, Otto and Ilse’s close friend and minder. 

            After several years in Madrid, enjoying the company of his family and bird hunting in the Spanish countryside, Askins was sent to Vietnam to join the select number of Eisenhower “advisors” training South Vietnamese soldiers in shooting and paratrooping. During those years, the colonel managed to earn his airborne qualification with both countries, amassing 132 jumps before calling it quits. While posted on the Vietnamese front, Askins would have encountered Jack Canon and Lucien Conein, among a number of other legends in that ill-fated endeavor. 

            Throughout his military career, Askins also indulged in big game hunting at every chance, and continued to do so the remainder of his life. He retired to San Antonio, Texas having been stationed at Fort Sam Houston when he returned stateside. He died there in March 1999. In a carefully worded statement, repeated by all who write about the legendary “Boots” Askins, “He retired from government service in 1963.”

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

 

The Largest Mass Deportation in American History

History Channel

https://www.history.com › Stories

 

 

 

Mar 23, 2018 — During Operation Wetback, tens of thousands of immigrants were shoved ... And Border Patrol head Harlon B. Carter —a convicted murderer who ...

Edited April 18, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

Operation Wetback, the 1950s immigration policy Donald Trump loves, explained

By Dara Linddara@vox.com  Nov 11, 2015, 1:40pm ES

•  

https://www.vox.com/2015/11/11/9714842/operation-wetback

[Leslie Sharp]

Trump pledges to be NRA’s ‘loyal friend’ ahead of 2024

BY JARED GANS - 04/14/23 7:37 PM ET

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3951621-trump-pledges-to-be-nras-loyal-friend-ahead-of-2024/

[Ron Bulman]

1 hour ago, Leslie Sharp said:

 

In pursuit of who might have been in a position to order, conceal, and/or confuse details surrounding the detainment of two (alleged) French citizens in Dallas within hours of the assassination of Kennedy, I have identified the Southwest Region head of Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS), Texas native Harlon B. Carter, as the primary candidate. 

From Carter's November 22, 1991, New York Times obituary,

Young Mr. Carter went on to graduate from the University of Texas and Emory Law School. Following in the footsteps of his father, he joined the United States Border Patrol. He rose rapidly, and was chief of the entire patrol from 1950 to 1957. He was commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Southwestern region from 1961 to 1970, when he retired after 34 years with the Government.

Upon reading of Mr. Carter's history with US Border Patrol, it was logical to consider the possibility he knew, personally, fellow Texan and renowned marksman Charles "Boots" Askins, the psychopathic gunman named in the 1963 datebook maintained by Pierre Lafitte. 

Indeed, Boots Askins and Harlon Carter had known each other for more than a decade if not longer: 

The 1952 model was a heavy barrel OP frame, .38 Special, rollmarked on the barrel "Border Patrol". Just issued one year, about 500 made. However, the United States Immigration and Border Patrol (USIBP) also were issued New Services before WWII. Col. Askins was the head of the service for a time and he and Harlon Carter (later president of the NRA) were said to have personally sighted in the New Services before they were issued to agents.

Also, from a long running credible gun afficionado chatroom, Word was that until Harlon Carter white-washed him, [Askins] was also persona non grata with the NRA.

Harlon B. Carter is best known for having almost single-handedly increased membership in the National Rife Association three-fold during his tenure as president and board member.  He led the infamous "Revolt at Cincinnati" also called the "Cincinnati Coup" which irreparably altered the course of the NRA from that of a noble association of hunters, sportsmen, gun enthusiasts and skilled marksmen to one of the most powerful, and some argue dangerous, lobbies in our country today. 

The best primer to Harlon B. Carter is found here:

How the Modern NRA Was Born at the Border

Watch our release of documentary short The Rifleman, which examines how NRA head Harlon Carter fused gun rights, immigration enforcement, and white supremacy. Then read an interview with filmmaker Sierra Pettengill and historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.

In making The Rifleman, I was interested in using Carter’s life to tell the story of the NRA beyond the limited context of the current debate over gun control, and instead place it in the broader context of how gun ownership has, since early in the nation’s founding, been central to enforcing a white nationalist vision of the United States. This continues the work of the films I have been making for the last eight or so years, which all explore how white supremacy operates within the mainstream, whether it’s through the proliferation of Confederate monuments (Graven Image, 2017) or the rise of the Tea Party (Town Hall, 2013, codirected with Jamila Wignot).

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/how-the-modern-nra-was-born-at-the-border/ 

For our interests, it is Carter's history with expert marksman Charles Askins — named along with Texas native Canon (Col. Jack) known for having headed General Charles Willoughby's Z. Org during the Korean War — in the Lafitte datebook laying out the unfolding of Project Lancelot.

Hired Guns

Askins 

—Lafitte datebook, September 12, 1963

 

Canon-- S + V?

—Lafitte datebook, September 14 1963

 

 

Askins - Willoughby OK

—Lafitte datebook, October 2, 1963

 

Willoughby team – Canon (Z org) D.

—Lafitte datebook, November 21, 1963
 

Col. Charles “Boots” Askins, Jr.

Boots Askins was a storied gunman in Texas since the early 1930s, and had moved within far-right circles all his life. Author Jeffrey Caufield, in his study of the assassination of JFK, features a letter from Joseph Milteer (himself a racist and far right associate of Willoughby and Walker) to Charles Askins pertaining to a forthcoming meeting of one of the myriad clandestine organizations that the radical right was running during the ’60s, indicating very “hush-hush” stuff. 

            Born in October 1907, the son of a prominent hunter and writer, Askins Jr. followed in his father’s footprints and, according to legend, "left some marks deeper than his dad." Prior to enlisting in the US Army, Askins had served in the US Forest Service and Border Patrol in the American Southwest. 

            During WWII, he served as a battlefield recovery officer, making landings in North Africa, Italy, and D-day. Following the war, he was posted in Spain as an attaché to the American embassy, assisting Franco’s administration in rebuilding the arms and ammunition factories after the war. This is but one clue that Askins was well known to General Willoughby and through that connection, he knew fellow Texan “Cactus Jack” Canon. In his role at the embassy in Madrid, Askins undoubtedly encountered Johannes Bernhardt of SOFINDUS, Otto Skorzeny, and Victor Oswald, all of whom need no further introduction to our reader. As attaché, Askins would also have been familiar with US Embassy officials including CIA agent Al Ulmer, and fellow attaché Jere Wittington, Otto and Ilse’s close friend and minder. 

            After several years in Madrid, enjoying the company of his family and bird hunting in the Spanish countryside, Askins was sent to Vietnam to join the select number of Eisenhower “advisors” training South Vietnamese soldiers in shooting and paratrooping. During those years, the colonel managed to earn his airborne qualification with both countries, amassing 132 jumps before calling it quits. While posted on the Vietnamese front, Askins would have encountered Jack Canon and Lucien Conein, among a number of other legends in that ill-fated endeavor. 

            Throughout his military career, Askins also indulged in big game hunting at every chance, and continued to do so the remainder of his life. He retired to San Antonio, Texas having been stationed at Fort Sam Houston when he returned stateside. He died there in March 1999. In a carefully worded statement, repeated by all who write about the legendary “Boots” Askins, “He retired from government service in 1963.”

 

 

 

This is getting deep Leslie.  From reading the book I was about to comment in another thread about not knowing about Ed Butler and William Riley of New Orleans being associated with CIA Assistant Director Charles Cabell (from Dallas/brother mayor of 1963) fired by JFK after the BOP.  I also noted that one of Pierre Lafitte's 30 or so aliases was Louis Hidell.  Then the Lafitte, Phelan, White part kind of blew my mind.

Now we have a storied Texan rifleman, Askins, after WWII stationed in Madrid rebuilding gun factories.  Knew Skorzeny, possibly trained, practiced, maybe even taught (shooting?) at Otto's training compound outside the city.  Retired from government service in 1963.  A Texan/European of interest. 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Ron Bulman

[Evan Marshall]

I knew Charley Askins and hated him. He was a ruthless murder.

[Leslie Sharp]

2 hours ago, Evan Marshall said:

I knew Charley Askins and hated him. He was a ruthless murder.

Intriguing is an understatement, Evan.

Are you a sharpshooter?

Did you ever run into Carter?

[Leslie Sharp]

 

                           Souetre—Mexico City-

                     —Lafitte datebook, November 12, 1963

 On November 12, 1963, former French army commando and paratrooper Jean Rene Marie Souetre—and two associates, both Hungarians, Laslo Vango [Laszlo Varga] and Lajos LNU [Marton], who had fled their homeland’s failed revolution and come to Spain where they were trained in specialized sabotage and assassination techniques by Souetre at two of Otto Skorzeny’s three training compounds outside of Madrid—landed on a commercial flight from Spain in Mexico City, Mexico. Each man carried several passports issued under various aliases, as well as their actual identities. Along with their passports each man also carried about $1,000 in US currency. . . . 

As this investigation draws to a close, the implications of the arrival in Mexico City on the 12th of November of two Hungarians and the former OAS paratrooper and marksman Jean Rene Souetre, when considered in context of the datebook entry of the same date, cement that Pierre Lafitte was kept apprised of the progress of Otto Skorzeny’s logistics for the assassination, down to the cast of characters destined for Dealey Plaza. By October 9^th, Lafitte already knew that Souetre and the Hungarians were on that list as evidenced: OSARN-OSARN-OSARN-OSARN-get Willoughby-Litt- plus Souetre, others (Hungarians). . . — Coup in Dallas

 

And Major Ralph Ganis writes in The Skorzeny Papers: Evidence for the Plot to Kill JFK,

During this period, Souetre was said to have used the alias, "Commander Constant," and, in addition to his business dealings in Palma de Mallorca, he also controlled a Madrid "extermination and fumigation company," with the on-the-nose name "Will Kill." The company "hired veteran survivors of Delta commando," and included a man named Lajos Marton . . . 

Although Bastien-Thiry did not name the members of the Study Group, the French Police identified the following OAS personnel: Captains Pierre Sargent, Jean Curutchet, and Jean Rene Souetre. the police believed Souetre "played a leading part in planning the attack at Petit-Clamart." Evident that this is true is revealed by the arrest afterward of [Lajos] Marton, Sari, and [Lazlo] Varga — all of Souetre's "Will Kill" exterminators, out of Madrid.  

 

[Evan Marshall]

I am a retired Sgt from the Detroit Police Dept whose assignments included SWAT and Homicide. In 1973 I started being published in the police and firearms publications. I met and interacted with many of the old-time coppers and gun writers. Sharpshooter? I was a dept sniper and trained a number of federal agencies including the Federal Air Marshals. Charley never seemed to care of the people he shot were armed or not.

[Leslie Sharp]

You write under a pen name? I guess you know Ayoub?

Carter shot a young unarmed Hispanic guy when he was 16. Served two years of a three-year sentence, joined the border patrol where I guess he first met Charley. and the rest is history.  Did you say you never ran into him?

Edited April 18, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Evan Marshall]

No, over the last decade or so I've focused on books. Currently working on the 4th one which will be on gunfight survival. I've known Mas for 40 years or more. Carter I never met. Charley. I knew him too well.

[Leslie Sharp]

8 minutes ago, Evan Marshall said:

No, over the last decade or so I've focused on books. Currently working on the 4th one which will be on gunfight survival. I've known Mas for 40 years or more. Carter I never met. Charley. I knew him too well.

Reminds me, I wish I had been aware of Carter when I emailed Ayoub's representative to quote him at length in Coup. If you're so inclined, might you ask him?

I've yet to come across anyone who admired Charley, other than perhaps Mas with the obvious caveats. I think his son still lives around Las Cruces NM.
 

Surviving a gunfight, or surviving during a gunfight?

PS. Have you seen the photo of the guy on the steps just to the west of the Pergola where Zapruder is perched?

[Evan Marshall]

surviving gunfights. His son seemed much more balanced. Mas, of course, can like whoever he wants to. Knew and liked Bill Jordan, Mason Williams, and Rex Applegate. 

[Leslie Sharp]

Draft preview of Continuity of the Coup in Dallas (@copyright — softcover edition in progress)

And speaking of Col. Jack Canon, clearly identified in the Lafitte datebook, 1963, who served under General Charles Willoughby, clearly identified in the Lafitte datebook, 1963: 

The Maltese Cross also lists the associate editors for [Gen. Willoughby's] Foreign Intelligence Digest. they included Prince Michael Sturdy (Costa Rica), Dr. Emilo Nunez-Portuondo (Cuba), Marques de Prat de Nantoulliet (Spain), M. Saint Paulien (France), Dr. Walter Becher (Germany) Hilaire du Berrier (France) [named in the Lafitte datebook, 1963, and guest in the home of Gen. Edwin Walker — named in the Lafitte datebook, 1963 — on November 22), Dr. Gerald Shelly (Italy), Dr. E. Gehlen (Germany), Freiherr von Braun (Germany), George Bard (Czechoslovakia), Leo M. Petit (Belgium), Admiral E. Heifferich (Holland), Dr. Lazarus Choumanides (Greece), Dr. Sten Forshufvud (Sweden), Vicomte Amaury d'Harcourt (France), Com. Div. Jean Népote (France), Abbe Pierre Delecambre (France) and many others . . .

Various 'associated national and international publications' also appear on the Maltese Cross list. They include A.B.N. Correspondence (Munich, editor Jaroslav Stetzko), . . . The Christian Crusade (Tulsa, editor E. L. White), . . . The Weekly Crusader (Tulsa, Rev. Billy James Hargis whose 1963 cross-country crusade featured Gen. Edwin Walker, clearly identified in the Lafitte datebook, 1963), . . . Interpol Review (Paris, editor Jean Népote). . . — from, "The Spy Who Would Be Tsar: The Mystery of Michal Goleniewski and the Far-Right Underground" by Kevin Coogan.

For our purposes, of special interest is Jean Népote — named here as contributor to Gen. Charles Willoughby's Foreign Intelligence Digest — who has been identified as a N-azi collaborator with the Vichy regime. Népote rose through the ranks of INTERPOL which had been infiltrated by the leading N-azis, and assumed the post of Secretary General in August 1963.  

At the risk of referring to historian Gerald Posner with this audience, he reports accurately,

“In 1939 Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Gestapo, was voted president of Interpol. In December 1941, Interpol moved its headquarters to the fashionable Berlin suburb of Wannsee, where it shared a villa with the Gestapo.”

It was in this villa where the infamous Wansee Conference was held and where the Final Solution was organized.

. . . Heydrich even made Interpol a division within the SD, the Security Police. When Heydrich was assassinated in Prague in June 1942, Himmler chose Heydrich’s successor at the Gestapo, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, to repace him as Interpol’s president. After Kaltenbrunner was hanged at Nuremberg in October 1946, a Belgian member of Interpol’s executive committee, Florent E. Louwage, became president. He was succeeded in 1956 by Jean Nepote, who had collaborated with the wartime Vichy government in France.

 

With high praise for researcher extraordinaire Robert Montenegro for opening this channel of research, in the following document, item 9, we see Jean Népote as the source for a training film described as providing "excellent detail on planning and execution of safecracking". The significance of the document is that it relates to other characters identified as having been in the spotter program / the QJ/WIN operation. Considering his history, his access, and the power of his role at INTERPOL, we argue that this single record strongly suggests Jean Népote was in fact among the QJ/WIN spotters.

 

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10185-10010.pdf

 

. As head of INTERPOL since August of 1963, responsible for cross-border policing on a global scale (including international drug trafficking), Népote was also in a position to lift travel restrictions at any given time. It is also plausible he exercised significant control over the status of (useful and perhaps familiar)convicted criminals who fell under the jurisdiction of the Minister of Justice in France where INTERPOL was headquartered. We also know that Népote's fellow N-azi collaborator during the Vichy regime, Maurice Papon had led the police in major French prefectures for decades and had also dealt closely with Corsicans.  (As secretary general for police in Bordeaux during the war, he participated in the deportation of more than 1,600 Jews, a crime against humanity he was charged with eventually). Papon's activity during the Algerian War from 1954-1962 included torture of insurgent prisoners. As prefect of the Paris police, he was responsbile for the deadly repression of the FLN, overseeing the "Paris massacres" of both 1961 and 1962 in response to anti-OAS demonstrations.  . . . 

Although there is no evidence that either Jean Népote or Maurice Papon knew OAS Captain Jean Rene Souetre — or experienced assassins Alice Lamy, Gerard Litt or Jean Filliol [all identified in the Lafitte datebook, 1963], or Hungarians [loosely referred to in the Lafitte datebook, 1963], or Lajos Marton or Laszlo Varga who were members of Souetre's deadly 'Will Kill' — it can be reasonably argued that both Népote and Papon — not unlike counterparts in Mexico and the US including INS Harlon B. Carter [who had served with Charles "Boots" Askins, named in the Lafitte datebook, 1963] — were in prime positions to order, conceal, and/or confuse details of the movement of known assassins.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

35 minutes ago, Evan Marshall said:

surviving gunfights. His son seemed much more balanced. Mas, of course, can like whoever he wants to. Knew and liked Bill Jordan, Mason Williams, and Rex Applegate. 

Did you cover the Canadian border in your career?