488th Army Intelligence Unit

[Charles Blackmon]

I just read something about the 488th Army Intelligence Unit on the jfkcountercoup blog. Comprised of about one hundred men, about half of whom served in the Dallas Police Dept. in 1963. That summer they received their annual training/maneuvers at of all places The Pentagon. Supposedly this would have been extremely unusual. Maybe a sign that the unit was preparing for some kind of imminent "big event".

Reading about all of the nefarious activities by Dallas law enforcement in the aftermath of the JFKA, kind of makes you wonder what was really going on!

Supposedly this is covered in Coup in Dallas. Has anybody read and recommend it?

[Steve Thomas]

11 minutes ago, Charles Blackmon said:

I just read something about the 488th Army Intelligence Unit on the jfkcountercoup blog. Comprised of about one hundred men, about half of whom served in the Dallas Police Dept.

 

Charles,

I'd recommend you do a Forum search for Jack Crichton. Also do searches for the 488th and Military Intelligence Detachments in general.

You can make up your own mind about the legitimacy of the claims you read.

Steve Thomas

[Paul Brancato]

Yes I’ve wondered the same, and Steve and I in particular have gone over this, I believe starting with his thread about all the colonels. I still think it’s a valid question - regardless of the soundness of evidence regarding the 488th, there is a lot of Army Intelligence presence, current and retired, in the DPD and at Dealey Plaza. 

[Chuck Schwartz]

I agree with Steve.  FYI, Jack Crichton founded the 488th (https://spartacus-educational.com/JFK488mid.htm).  Crichton and the 488th are covered in the " Coup in Dallas" , which I read and recommend.  Members of the 488th were in the JFK motorcade in Dallas and may have slowed the motorcade down right in front of the TSBD. 

[Charles Blackmon]

Whether there was a military connection or not, the DPD was crawling with characters intent on implicating Oswald and aiding and abetting Ruby in eliminating him. What a case!

[Steve Thomas]

1 hour ago, Chuck Schwartz said:

I agree with Steve.  FYI, Jack Crichton founded the 488th (https://spartacus-educational.com/JFK488mid.htm).  Crichton and the 488th are covered in the " Coup in Dallas" , which I read and recommend.  Members of the 488th were in the JFK motorcade in Dallas and may have slowed the motorcade down right in front of the TSBD. 

Chuck,

I personally believe that Jack Crichton.s 488th was a product of his fevered imagination and delusions of grandeur, who co-opted the name of a legitimate military unit.

There are others who believe that the 488th was a legitimate organization and deserving of serious research and study.

When you say that "members of the 488th were in the JFK motorcade in Dallas...", can you tell me who they were?

I ask, because I have never seen anyone outside of Frank Brandstetter, who ever said, "I was a member of Jack Crichton's 488th."

I personally think that a more fruitful area of research is the 4150th U.S. Army Reserve Training Center, where Deputy Chief, George Lumpkin was Commandant, and where, I believe, George Whitmeyer taught intelligence. They were both in the Pilot Car of the motorcade.

Boise Smith was also on the faculty.

"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)
 

Mary Ferrell Database
1963-1964 City Directories list him (George Whitmeyer) as Area Commander USA Reserve Training Center.

Did George Whitmeyer teach at the Muchert Reserve Center where George Lumpkin was the Commandant and Boise Smith was also associated with?

 

B.B. (Boise) Smith. Director, Civil Defense and Disaster Commission. Dallas Police Department, Deputy Chief of Police.

Reported directly to Chief Curry.

Batchelor Exhibit 5002

https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/pdf/WH19_Batchelor_Ex_5002.pdf

The Civil Defense and Disaster Commission was headquartered at the Fairgraounds, where the Special Services Bureau also had their office.

Colonel. B.B. Smith

Daily Palmer Rustler October 14, 1954 page 2

https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth782328/m1/2/

It looks like the 4150^th was housed at Love Field up until the City donated property to it in 1956.

Steve Thomas

[Chuck Schwartz]

Steve, this was in the article  I referenced above; " His close friend, Deputy Police Chief George L. Lumpkin, and a fellow member of the the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, drove the pilot car of Kennedy's motorcade. Also in the car was Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer, commander of all Army Reserve units in East Texas. The pilot car stopped briefly in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where Lumpkin spoke to a policeman controlling traffic at the corner of Houston and Elm."  

[Steve Thomas]

1 hour ago, Chuck Schwartz said:

Steve, this was in the article  I referenced above; " His close friend, Deputy Police Chief George L. Lumpkin, and a fellow member of the the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, drove the pilot car of Kennedy's motorcade. Also in the car was Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer, commander of all Army Reserve units in East Texas. The pilot car stopped briefly in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where Lumpkin spoke to a policeman controlling traffic at the corner of Houston and Elm."  

Chuck,

Thanks for passing that along.

I read the article you referenced.  I have number of issues with it that I won't go into, unless you want me to, but I will say that whoever wrote it was unaware of the 4150th Army Reserve Training School in Dallas and Charles Lumpkin's role in it.

Steve Thomas

[Ed Berger]

I'm very interested in Steve's comment, especially this:

Quote

I personally believe that Jack Crichton.s 488th was a product of his fevered imagination and delusions of grandeur, who co-opted the name of a legitimate military unit.

I find this idea totally plausible, and there's even precedence for this sort of thing happening. I'm reminded of the ever-mysterious Shickshinny Knights of Malta/Order of St. John of Jerusalem, where people like Charles Willoughby and Pedro Del Valle liked to hang their hat. It presented itself as a real, concrete order in the lineage of the Knights of Malta (citing a so-called 'Russian' lineage). Despite the pomp and circumstance and religious aesthetic they attached to it, this was a total fabrication, organized by a dubious conman named Charles Pichel—and even so, this didn't prevent them from engaging in intelligence-linked skullduggery. 

At the same time, there are a few things that make me pause (and forgive me if this has been talked about already). There's the article in the Longview News-Journal, April 9 1964, that describes Crichton's attachment to the unit, and identifies it as an army reserve unit. Not such big news, given that this is repeated in the various allegations over the years, and it's possible that this was based on a CV provided by Crichton and wasn't vetted by the person writing up the blurb. 

But the other few trace mentions of the 488th also identify it as being connected with the Army Reserve, with a strong Texas-Dallas/Fort Worth bent. Such as the obit of Jack Earnest:

Quote

 

He was born in Dallas, Texas, on the 18th of June 1928, and grew up in Oak Cliff during the Great Depression... he returned to Dallas and went to work at Magnolia Petroleum Company (now Exxon-Mobil). At age 18 he graduated from Dallas College (S.M.U.) and then attended S.M.U. Law School... 

He enlisted in the United States Army Reserve in 1948 and served as an enlisted man in various units attaining the rank of Master Sergeant, was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in September, 1953 and assigned to the 847th CIC Detachment. In June 1956, he was assigned to the 488th Strategic Intelligence Detachment until 1962, achieving the rank of Captain. This latter assignment was primarily concerned with providing intelligence on Russian and other countries' status in exploration and production of oil and natural gas for use with other intelligence units in preparing and updating National Intelligence Summaries.

 

and the obit of Buddy Wright:

Quote

 

Retired Army Col. Buddy Joe Wright was born Dec. 14, 1937, in Gainesville and had been a Fort Worth resident since 1963. He was a graduate of Durant High School in Durant, Okla., Southeastern Oklahoma State University and the U.S. Army War College.

He was an Army intelligence officer at Fort Hood 2nd Armored Division, served in the 90th Army Reserve Command and retired as commander of the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment Strategic. In his civilian life, he was a security manager at Lockheed-Martin.

 

and the obit of Bill Sigman Jr.:

Bill dedicated virtually his entire adult life to our country. He volunteered to enlist in the Vietnam War and went on to serve in the Army Reserves.

Quote

As a Reserve Unit of the United States Army the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment (Strategic), they performed classified intelligence services for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Members of the 488th were tasked to do area studies on topics of interest by the DIA. Members of the unit were assigned to teams to work on these classified studies. Unit members maintained high level clearances in order to carry out studies that were published and made available to the intelligence community. Staff Sergeant (SSG) William Sigman’s work on classified studies was critical to the unit’s success.

The Earnest obit is the most interesting in my mind, since it connects the 488th to oil exploration analysis, especially with regards to monitoring Soviet activities in this area. Maybe it's a long shot, but perhaps this contains some clues to why Crichton would associate himself with the 488th?

In 1946, Crichton joined DeGolyer & McNaughton; seven years later, in 1953, Crichton, Degolyer, and MacNaughton all becomes vice president of the Empire Trust Company of New York, which had Dallas offices in the Fidelity Union Life building. Empire Trust (which itself is fantastically connected, both in terms of power economic and political), has had a long-standing relationship to Texas, and the Dallas side of the company was the locus of its oil and gas division. Hence Crichton and his bosses turning up there. To manage their oil and gas assets, Empire organized Oil and Gas Property Management Inc, which it took a majority stake in. At the same time that he became an Empire Trust VP, Crichton became a president of Oil and Gas Property Management (incidentally, in 1959 one William Casey bought stock of the company).

Oil and Gas Property Management had two interesting holdings. One of these was the Dorchester Corporation, under which was Dorchester Oil and Gas. Dorchester was spun-off from the Empire Trust structure, and at that point gained an intriguing board member: D.H. Byrd. 

The other was a dominant stake in the Yemen Development Corporation. Crichton was president of this company too, and its chairman was George E. Allen (who was also over at Floyd Odlum's Atlas Corporation, which is its own infinite can of worms, leading directly to things like the World Commerce Corporation). The Yemen Development Corporation was set up to carry out oil exploration in the Kingdom of Yemen, which at that time was shaping up to be a major geopolitical pivot point (and for the British, something that appeared as the last stand in their waning empire). But it had a covert side: the State Department and the CIA were the forces behind Yemen Development, with the mandate of the company being an effort to obtain a foothold in the region ahead of the Soviets. 

Yemen Development ended up being a very troubled venture, to say the least. An August 1957 CIA memorandum makes reference to Yemen Development in the context of operations in the region, while a CIA document from November of the same year shows that they were hunting for buyers for the company, while few were interested in picking it up due to costs. Ultimately, it went bust, as did a follow-up effort under the auspices of the American Overseas Investment Corporation, but a successor company stepped in 1961—the John Mecom Company (details of this are in numerous petroleum journals from the period, such as volume 33 of Petroleum Engineer, 1961).

So I find it interesting: we have Crichton, starting in 1955, running an Empire Trust holding, the Yemen Development Corporation, which was actually part of a CIA-effort to route around the Soviets in Yemen by obtaining oil concessions there. Then, when have Crichton, at the very least, using the name of a military intelligence unit, the 488th, that appears to have been monitoring Soviet oil activities. Maybe there's something here? 

As one final dangling thread, we have one of Guy Bannister's associates, William Dalzell, turning up in spring of 1960 acting as an agent of Yemen—traveling to "make contacts with representatives of oil companies to market" Yemen oil concessions. There's actually a reference to Crichton and the Yemen Development Corporation within Dalzell's FBI file, but the scan is very bad and the Mary Ferrell search isn't tracking it down at the moment. I'll post it when I can find it. But the FBI also inquired with the John Mecom Company about Dalzell; the company's W. Angie Smith said that Dalzell sounded "vaguely familiar". Mecom denied any knowledge of Dalzell, however.

[Steve Thomas]

Ed,

I will just reply to your post, rather than try to quote it, since it is so long.

First, thanks for posting the pictures of Jack Crichton. I don't have a copy of his 1964 book, and don't have any pictures of him later in life.

Secondly, yes, there was a real and legitimate 488th Military Intelligence Detatchment. if you read the following study by Thomas Cagley,'

In his 1991 study, entitled, Reforming Military Intelligence Reserve Components: 1995-2005, Colonel, Thomas Cagley showed that half of the Military Intelligence Detatcments (MID's) reported directly to the DIA.

See Table II2, page 14 of his study. The 488th was one of the MID's which reported to the DIA (the Defense Intelligence Agency)..

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a233391.pdf

Traditionally, MID's consisted of 9 men and were headed by a Colonel. Their analysis were strategic in nature, and often the members were multi-lingual. Since they did not have any support staff (like secretaries), they were attached to a larger unit for the purposes of drawing supplies and pay.

I was in contact with Colonel Cagley, and he told me that an MID consisting of 100 men was more like a social club, like the VFW or American Legion than a real Military Intelligence Detatchment.

Thirdly, the idea of someone up and starting his own Uinit of the United States Army, Reserve or not, is absurd on its face. That hasn't been done since the Civil War, and I'm sure the Command structure in Washington would not look too kindly on it.

Steve Thomas

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by Steve Thomas

[Ed Berger]

6 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

Ed,

I will just reply to your post, rather than try to quote it, since it is so long.

First, thanks for posting the pictures of Jack Crichton. I don't have a copy of his 1964 book, and don't have any pictures of him later in life.

Secondly, yes, there was a real and legitimate 488th Military Intelligence Detatchment. if you read the following study by Thomas Cagley,'

In his 1991 study, entitled, Reforming Military Intelligence Reserve Components: 1995-2005, Colonel, Thomas Cagley showed that half of the Military Intelligence Detatcments (MID's) reported directly to the DIA.

See Table II2, page 14 of his study. The 488th was one of the MID's which reported to the DIA (the Defense Intelligence Agency)..

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a233391.pdf

Traditionally, MID's consisted of 9 men and were headed by a Colonel. Their analysis were strategic in nature, and often the members were multi-lingual. Since they did not have any support staff (like secretaries), they were attached to a larger unit for the purposes of drawing supplies and pay.

I was in contact with Colonel Cagley, and he told me that an MID consisting of 100 men was more like a social club, like the VFW or American Legion than a real Military Intelligence Detatchment.

Thirdly, the idea of someone up and starting his own Uinit of the United States Army, Reserve or not, is absurd on its face. That hasn't been done since the Civil War, and I'm sure the Command structure in Washington would not look too kindly on it.

Steve Thomas

 

Hi Steve, 

Thanks for the link, very interesting stuff! Certainly dovetails with some of the info in the obits above, that the 488th did work with the DIA...

I'm in agreement with you that when Crichton bragged about organizing the unit, it having 100+ men, being the commanding officer, etc., he was blowing smoke, insofar as the real 488th was concerned. The possibility that he boosted the name for a social club itself is itself intriguing, and it raises the question—assuming that this scenario is the accurate one—of why the 488th in particular? Personally I see two solutions: the social club explanation, and the possibility that he actually did some manner of work with the 488th, though in a less grandiose way than he presented. 

I guess my ultimate question, somewhat buried in my too-long post, is this: could Crichton have had some manner of contact with the real 488th in the context of his intelligence-linked oil work in Dallas and Yemen in the late 1950s, given that we have evidence that the 488th was doing oil intelligence? It seems to me that this could lead to either possibility, that he was simply misrepresenting (intentionally?) his work with the unit, or that he jacked the unit's name for his own purposes. But I admit this is speculative, based more on propinquity of places and times and interests. 

[Steve Thomas]

40 minutes ago, Ed Berger said:

I guess my ultimate question, somewhat buried in my too-long post, is this: could Crichton have had some manner of contact with the real 488th in the context of his intelligence-linked oil work in Dallas and Yemen in the late 1950s, given that we have evidence that the 488th was doing oil intelligence?

Rd,

I honestly don't know.

I've never run across any, but that's not to say there might not have been any.

I would think the real 488th would be a little pissed know that there was somebody running around doing stuff in their name.

Steve Thomas

[Paul Brancato]

Even the Military Order of World Wars states that Colonel Crichton ran a MID. And Colonel Brandstetter’s book states that his ‘big brother’ at ACSI sent him to join the 488th in Dallas in about 1959. There is only the question of what size the unit was, and whether Crichton was blowing smoke when he made that oral statement which btw is in the 6th Floor Museum archives but was mis-filed because they had the spelling of Crichton wrong. I did find it though, and pointed it out to the director. Presumably he corrected the ‘mistake’. The MO of the real 488th fits perfectly with Crichton’s MO.

[Ed Berger]

Finally found the document inserted in the William Dalzell FBI file that mentions Jack Crichton, George Allen and the Yemen Development Company. Attached a pic below—as you can see the document is a summary of a meeting with Dalzell, with Dalzell relaying the information about Crichton and Allen's (and the Empire Trust + CIA's) Yemen oil venture and it's failure. This shows that, at the very least, that Dalzell knew of Crichton and friends, and his own efforts to open up concessions for Yemeni oil can be contextualized in its breakdown (getting closer on the 'in the desert' @Leslie Sharp?)

Laid out in a timeline, we basically have the following series of events: 

• Edward Stettinius of the World Commerce Corp and Liberia Company begins plans for parallel development companies in Ethiopia and Yemen,  but these plans fail to materialize. This would have been summer of 1948.
• Jack Crichton, George Allen, Empire Trust etc organize the Yemen Development Corporation around 1955 or 1956. These plans fall apart, with little interest in large Western oil companies to pour their resources into Yemen.
• The American Overseas Investment Corporation follows on the heels of the Yemen Development Corporation's failure. Dalzell, citing the experience of the Yemen Development Corporation, begins hunting for oil concessions. 
• John W. Mecom, in 1961, arrives in Yemen, having potentially had some manner of undetermined contact with Dalzell. He plants roots there and eventually obtains oil.

I think it should be kept in mind that the CIA was very active in Yemen not only where oil was concerned, but along with British intelligence helped facilitate a bloody civil that saw support for the Royalists against the Nasser-aligned Republicans in contradiction to the foreign policy agenda and mandates of the Kennedy administration. The above connections make this from Stephen Dorrill's book on MI-6 all the more chilling:

Quote

 

White was concerned by a visit from CIA officer Jim Critchfield, who argued that the West could not afford to lose Yemen and, therefore, that the CIA should fight Nasser regardless of his President's policies. He added that NSA intercepts had shown that Russian pilots were flying Tu-16s with Egyptian insignia from Cairo to Yemen. Critchfield suggested bypassing the Foreign Office and the State Department in order to develop closer liaison between MI6 and the CIA. According to Tom Bower, White wanted to spurn the offer but he was under pressure fom Macmillan. It was difficult to resist closer relations after James Fees, a CIA officer posted under cover of a humanitarian aid agency to Ta'izz, provided MI6 with a copy of the republican army's field dispositions. White's change of heart was evident by early November when the CIA's Deputy Chief for Plans, Richard Helms, visited London and was asked for assistance in supporting the royalists and in softening State Department opposition to British policy. Shortly after, a CIA National Estimate identified the existence of a Soviet threat in the region.

MI6 lobbying seemed to have little effect. On 21 November President Kennedy telephoned Alec Douglas-Home and asked for his personal assurance that British mercenaries would be withdrawn. The Foreign Secretary denied that Britain was involved but promised to make enquiries. The following day Kennedy was assassinated. Smiley recalled that the tribesmen heard the news of Kennedy's death on the radio and reacted with cheers, as they regarded him as the architect of American support for Nasser.

 

 

Edited July 23, 2023 by Ed Berger

[Leslie Sharp]

8 minutes ago, Ed Berger said:

Finally found the document inserted in the William Dalzell FBI file that mentions Jack Crichton, George Allen and the Yemen Development Company. Attached a pic below—as you can see the document is a summary of a meeting with Dalzell, with Dalzell relaying the information about Crichton and Allen's (and the Empire Trust + CIA's) Yemen oil venture and it's failure. This shows that, at the very least, that Dalzell knew of Crichton and friends, and his own efforts to open up concessions for Yemeni oil can be contextualized in its breakdown (getting closer on the 'in the desert' @Leslie Sharp?)

Laid out in a timeline, we basically have the following series of events: 

• Edward Stettinius of the World Commerce Corp and Liberia Company begins plans for parallel development companies in Ethiopia and Yemen,  but these plans fail to materialize. This would have been summer of 1948.
• Jack Crichton, George Allen, Empire Trust etc organize the Yemen Development Corporation around 1955 or 1956. These plans fall apart, with little interest in large Western oil companies to pour their resources into Yemen.
• The American Overseas Investment Corporation follows on the heels of the Yemen Development Corporation's failure. Dalzell, citing the experience of the Yemen Development Corporation, begins hunting for oil concessions. 
• John W. Mecom, in 1961, arrives in Yemen, having potentially had some manner of undetermined contact with Dalzell. He plants roots there and eventually obtains oil.

I think it should be kept in mind that the CIA was very active in Yemen not only where oil was concerned, but along with British intelligence helped facilitate a bloody civil that saw support for the Royalists against the Nasser-aligned Republicans in contradiction to the foreign policy agenda and mandates of the Kennedy administration. The above connections make this from Stephen Dorrill's book on MI-6 all the more chilling:

 

I was waiting for Critchfield! 

Are you familiar with Kagnew Station, later designated Stonehouse? or Francis Raven, NSA cryptologist 

Back soon.

Edited July 23, 2023 by Leslie Sharp