WHY DID A HIGH RANKING US MILITARY OFFICER MEET WITH A NAZI ASSASSIN IN 1962 TO COMPLAIN ABOUT JFK?

[Leslie Sharp]

Nov 14, 2023

By: Aaron Good

A recently discovered document found in West German archives reveals that during or just before the month of September 1962, a US military officer met with notorious Nazi assassin and terrorist Otto Skorzeny. The US officer spoke with Skorzeny in Madrid, Spain to complain about the foreign policy of US President John F. Kennedy.

 

 

The document was discovered within the Otto Skorzeny file of Germany's BND archives. German researcher and filmmaker Dirk Pohlmann found the report and shared it with his friend, the great Swedish academic Ola Tunander---who then forwarded it to Peter Dale Scott and me. It raises very interesting questions about Skorzeny, a man who was already a suspect in the eyes of some JFK assassination researchers. 

 

 

 

This is a scan of the document:

 

 

 

 

Here is a working English translation:

 

 

 

Subject: Skorzeny, Madrid

 

With respect to the documents in Madrid, an excerpt from a report from an [outsider] whose sources have significant business in Spain via the Trading Company of Otto Skorzeny. The report is dated Sept. 21, 1962.

 

Until recently, Skorzeny was the general representative of the VÖST [Note: this appears to refer to a Nazi manufacturing company, Voestalpine]. This position was terminated without justification. It’s assumed, that either the Socialist Party of Austria or even the [Socialist Union] was behind this.

 

Materially, Skorzeny should be fine without the position with the VÖST. Recently he’s supposed to have purchased property in Ireland and has had his villa in Mallorca for a while, although he lives in his [flat] in Madrid.

 

According to the source, Skorzeny has continued contact with American military, particularly contact with flight officers [probably closer to say air force officers] of the US Army.

 

In these circles [i.e., among US military officers], one is distraught over the politics of the current president and his close advisors. The advisors are “wusses” who do not believe in the supremacy of the west over the east. The election of Kennedy was a catastrophe, which was achieved by bribery and corruption which cannot be undone in one legislative session, etc

Similarly, the officers are critical of the millions spent on Poland solely for elections or given to “n****r states” [i.e., African nation-states] whose diaspora in the US could be courted as voters.

According to Skorzeny, American foreign policy is a chain reaction of stupid decisions that isn’t a real foreign policy – rather, it’s foreign policy based on domestic politics (as is common for America).

The September 21, 1962 date is notable. It is likely that the meeting took place in that month, an eventful month for Skorzeny. On September 11, 1962, a German scientist named Heinz Krug vanished after a day spent at his office. Krug was one of many former Nazi rocket scientists who were working for Nasser's Egypt. In 2016, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported "that Krug was murdered as part of an Israeli espionage plot to intimidate the German scientists working for Egypt." 

According to Dan Raviv and Yossi Melmanm, the authors of the article,

 

[T]he most astounding revelation is the Mossad agent who fired the fatal gunshots: Otto Skorzeny, one of the Israeli spy agency’s most valuable assets, was a former lieutenant colonel in Nazi Germany’s Waffen-SS and one of Adolf Hitler’s personal favorites among the party’s commando leaders. The Führer, in fact, awarded Skorzeny the army’s most prestigious medal, the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, for leading the rescue operation that plucked his friend Benito Mussolini out from the hands of his captors. But that was then. By 1962, according to our sources—who spoke only on the promise that they not be identified—Skorzeny had a different employer. The story of how that came to be is one of the most important untold tales in the archives of the Mossad.

 

As detailed by Professor Chris Simpson in Blowback: America’s Recruitment Of Nazis And Its Effects On The Cold War, Skorzeny was assisted in a mysterious jailbreak before he could be tried for war crimes. He was then used by the CIA to get close to the Egyptian insurgent officers led by Gamal Nasser. Allen Dulles tasked the Nazi spymaster Reinhard Gehlen with helping the Egyptian officers on intelligence and security matters. Gehlen then deployed Otto Skorzeny to assist Nasser and company. According to Raviv and Melmanm it was years later---in early 1962---that Mossad recruited Skorzeny. 

 

During the strange evening when he was recruited, Skorzeny became suspicious about two new friends that he and his wife (the niece of Hjalmar Schacht, aka "Hitler's banker") had met in a bar in Madrid. Surmising that they were not who they claimed to be, Skorzeny pulled a gun on them and said, “I know who you are, and I know why you’re here. You are Mossad, and you’ve come to kill me.” The Israeli spies explained that they were not there to kill him, but that if he killed them, Mossad would send spies who would indeed kill him. However, they merely needed Skorzeny to do some jobs for Mossad. In exchange, they agreed to have Skorzeny's name removed from an Israeli list of Nazi war criminals.

This was how a Nazi assassin went from being a war criminal awaiting trial, to being a CIA asset, to being a Mossad agent, to killing a German scientist at the behest of Israel, to finally having a friendly chat with a high-ranking, right-wing US Air Force officer about how President Kennedy was a disaster for giving too much away to black people and for not recognizing the supremacy of the West over the East. 

 

For those who have been following the release of the Four Died Trying film series, it is also worth noting how the treason-minded US military officer in question here also had complaints about "millions...given to 'n****r states' [i.e., African nation-states] whose diaspora in the US could be courted as voters." When Four Died Trying moves to the next major assassination after President Kennedy---the murder of Malcolm X in 1965---viewers will learn about how US foreign policy elites were alarmed at Malcolm X and his campaign to tie African liberation to the struggle of black Americans.

 

 

 

 

 

As mentioned above, some respected JFK researchers believe that Skorzeny was a key figure in the Dallas assassination of President John F. Kennedy. While the book Coup in Dallas relies on some source material of disputed authenticity, it contains much interesting material on Otto Skorzeny. Regardless of the extent of Skorzeny's actual involvement in the Dallas plot, this newly discovered 1962 memo shows how deadly serious the Cold War national security state was in terms of opposing the foreign policy of President Kennedy

https://www.fourdiedtrying.com/post/why-did-a-high-ranking-us-military-officer-meet-with-a-nazi-assassin-in-1962-to-complain-about-jfk

[Leslie Sharp]

My response to Aaron Good:

Thanks for this, and I didn’t realize you were supportive of the laudable FourDiedTrying project.

 

I wasn’t aware of the 1962 document so thanks for drawing my attention to it. I believe Skorzeny was under indictment for a fraudulent nickel deal in either Belgium or his home country by then so it’s possible VÖST wanted to distance themselves? Or perhaps they were victim of the Skorzeny scheme?

 

Have you or Prof. Scott ventured to speculate the identify of the officer referred to in the doc? Have you cross-referenced with Willoughby’s files? I’ll forward this to a researcher knowledgable.

 

Is it apparent to you from this document that the officer was active duty in 1962?

 

I read a hint of Gen. Walker in the reference to “n***r states”. You may be aware that according to a Walker-related document buried in bureau files, in January 1963 he had sent circulars to various European fascists calling for worldwide action. At the same time, he had written personal letters to OAS in France as well as ideologically aligned friends in Madrid and in Lausanne.

We know from Willoughby’s itinerary that he planned a trip to the latter in the fall of ’63 where he would meet Yaroslav Stetsko of the OUN.

 

Is it reasonable to consider that the officer in the September 1962 document was from either or both the Willoughby and Walker camps. In spite of ‘retirement’ they both appear to have extracted loyalty among active duty as well as retired. For instance, among the army attachés assigned to track Skorzeny’s arms deals in the early 1950s was Col. Charles Askins, the renowned marksman who served in the Texas Border Patrol before and following WWII. Askins is identified in the Lafitte datebook as having been given the “ok” by Gen. Willoughby for Lancelot Project. And of course there is Wittington, or perhaps Alderson . . . for another discussion.

 

In context of Skorzeny’s having purportedly cut a deal with Mossad in exchange for assassinating Krug, Rexist leader Leon Degrelle — who was residing in exile in Madrid — was under threat of extradition by the Israelis around this time. There has been speculation that he was convinced Pres. Kennedy would cave and turn a blind eye. (For related text, see reply **)

Are you familiar with Amit Meir’s remarks that he considered Skorzeny for a back door entreé to Nasser? The ‘operation’ never came to fruition and Meir indicates he never used Skorzeny again. Photos of Meir in Tucson with Angleton are provocative to say the least.

 

If I could clarify, the “disputed” authenticity of the Pierre Lafitte datebook which Hank serendipitously became aware of and eventually gained access to, seems to originate with individuals who have never laid eyes on the physical instrument. The question, and even skepticism, of authentication is reasonable and was anticipated, but to “dispute” authentication without cause is unprofessional — and in our view, rife with potential interference with the progression of the cold case murder investigation.

[Leslie Sharp]

AIR FORCE COL. HERSCHEL V. WILLIAMS

"In addition to his legitimate reason for dealing closely with Ilse Skorzeny at Previews, Col. Williams was apparently in frequent communication with Otto."



In what has been reported as a vicious competition for status and financing, Donovan’s OSS won out over Frenchy Grombach’s The Pond. Ironically, later Donovan’s World Commerce Corp. would assume a structure and profile similar to that of Grombach’s organization, serving as cover for what was tantamount to a semi-private/government front for espionage and global intel operations.

The minor thread in the tapestry, from Grombach to our investigation, can best be condensed in a vignette of his history in New Orleans. “Frenchy” was the son of the French Consul in New Orleans, and as a young man, he was infamous for his boxing skills, shared with the son of an executive of Southern Cotton Oil Co. in New Orleans, Herschel V. Williams. Years later, former OSS agent and Air Force Col. Williams was hired as a senior executive of NYC Previews Inc., the international real estate firm that provided Otto Skorzeny’s wife Ilse a cover as she maneuvered the globe in the decade leading to the assassination in Dallas.The Hawley’s banking operation in Connecticut attracted to the board founded by their common ancestor in the mid-1800s, the famed aviation pioneer, Igor Sikorsky, a native of Kiev [now the capital of Ukraine]. Of significance to our inquiry into Tom and Carolyn Hawley Davis, in 1963, Igor was the honorary chairman of the Tolstoy Foundation, an aid organization that he helped found in 1939. On the board of the foundation in ’63 was Herschel V. Williams, a Sr. VP of Previews, Inc. where Ilse Skorzeny enjoyed cover, as well as Paul Raigorodsky, the Russian born oil geologist based in Dallas, known as the known as the "Czar of the White Russian community.” Raigorodsky had served as head of the Office of Petroleum Coordination for War during the war, reporting to Donald Nelson (a corporate alumni of Sears & Roebuck) who was chief of the WPB; Nelson in turn, reported to Roosevelt’s Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes who was succeeded by Thomas Proctor’s good friend and future law partner, Paul McNutt, as High Commissioner of the Philippines. At the time, Raigorodsky’s father-in-law was the vice chairman of the Dallas branch of the Federal Reserve Board in the 1920s.

Raigorodsky and H. V. Williams have already been mentioned, but for the purpose of understanding the significance of the petroleum geologist as a pivotal character in Dallas in the lead up to the assassination as well as William’s role in real estate venture Previews, Inc., it is important to first absorb the context of these Connecticut connections, including those with the Hawley’s bank. It was Raigorodsky who testified before the Warren Commission that Jean de Menil of Schlumberger, Ltd. was in direct discussions with George de Mohrenschildt related to operations in Haiti the summer of 1963—around the time that the Hawley’s daughter Carolyn was living with her husband, Tom Davis, in Southern California as he staged a recruitment for the invasion of the island.

When interviewed by authorities, Carolyn explained that she and Tom were traveling on her credit card; she also stated that she was employed by a “typewriter firm.” Bridgeport-based Underwood Typewriter (a military contractor during WWII) had a plant in Van Nuys, CA, just thirty minutes from Ventura where the Davis’s said they resided when questioned by authorities at the Tahiti Village motel in Downey, CA. Carolyn’s family bank board in Bridgeport included Dennis. S. Sammis, senior vice president of Underwood Corp. (see additional implications of the aforementioned detail in Endnotes to this chapter.)

Thus exemplifies the milieu and events surrounding the twenty-six-year-old bride, Carolyn Hawley Davis—steeped in three centuries of New England banking and social standing—as she stepped off that plane in Madrid with her new husband, twenty-seven-year-old jack of all trades, a convicted felon and soldier-of-fortune from Texas, Thomas Eli Davis.

***

While Tom and Carolyn Davis were preparing for their September 1963 jaunt to Mexico City where they had lived periodically, Lee Harvey Oswald was standing in line with William Gaudet. Both men were there to secure a visitor’s visa allowing them into Mexico. Many familiar with assassination research will be familiar with the name Gaudet as the man who boarded the same bus in the Crescent City as Oswald on September 26 en route to Mexico City. As we learned, Lafitte entered the name Gaudet in his datebook following the words, “Oswald – Mex City”.

 

 

A 1951 State Department Policy Planning memo, directed from PP staffer Robert Joyce to Nitze, expressed horror at the virulence of the “first strike” advocates in Washington at that time. Joyce honed in on a prominent advocate of war: “A Lt. Col. Herschel Williams I have long thought has played an important role in what might be called Air Force thinking in the ‘drop it now’ school.” Williams “now considers himself somewhat of a geopolitician. He has a new and rich wife, [the daughter of a prominent Missouri Senator], and I understand entertains lavishly in Washington along the lines which he and his wife regard as a political salon. He does not disguise his extreme hostility to the Department of State and what he regards to be the Department’s soft policy with regard to the Soviet Union. I have been advised he is listened to with attention and respect by some of his superiors in A-2. I am also advised that he is a close personal friend of Mr. Stuart Symington, who apparently has a high regard for Williams’ views on the world situation. From my short meetings with Williams, I consider him to be an ignorant, conceited, and wrong-headed man.”

Joyce continued: “I know for a fact that Herschel Williams is a close friend and more or less constant companion of Mr. James Burnham, the author of The Struggle for the World, The Coming Defeat of Communism, and other books. I am also advised that Mr. Burnham sees quite frequently Isaac Don Levine. [sic] As you know, Messrs. Burnham and Levine are former Marxists who are now among the leading and more extreme of the hate-Stalin-and-do-something-about-it-at-once school. In short, I believe there is a great deal of evidence that there is a James Burnham-Herschel Williams-Air Force-Symington nexus…”

The following day, Nitze sent an internal State Department memo in which he quoted a contact of his, Professor George Taylor, who had recently attended a dinner party held at the home of Freda Utley, a right-wing writer who was also a business associate of Otto Skorzeny. Taylor described the guests at the party as being a group of militant ex-communists who were “united by a sense of righteous urgency for immediate war with the Soviet Union.” Another guest at the Utley party was identified by Taylor as “an Air Force Lt. Col. named Williams.” Taylor told Nitze that “great adulation was paid to Williams by the ex-communists present. They listened to his words as authoritative. They praised him as the one man within the circles of government who understood the situation.” Professor Taylor described Williams as “a very articulate man of about 40, endowed with a college sophomore comprehension of communism and a set of blood-curdling clichés.”

Williams was also appointed to the board of the Tolstoy Foundation, alongside numerous intelligence-connected ultraconservatives including the kingpin of the Dallas White Russian community, oil industry expert Paul Raigorodsky, Jean de Menil of Schlumberger, and Igor Sikorsky, all of whom are pursued in Chapters 9 and 10. The Tolstoy Foundation was known as one of the most far-right post-war refugee organizations devoted to cultivating a particular kind of Russian émigré. Tolstoy board member Vadim Makaroff had even led a campaign of vilification in 1951 against the extremely conservative David Martin of IRC who we met previously, accusing him of being a “hidden Communist” due to Martin’s policy of reaching out to certain left-wing assets. In addition to his legitimate reason for dealing closely with Ilse Skorzeny at Previews, Col. Williams was apparently in frequent communication with Otto. — Coup in Dallas . . .  by H. P. Albarelli Jr, with Leslie Sharp and Alan Kent