Claude Barnes Capehart?

[Nick Bartetzko]

James I will look for the Probe articles and see if I can scan and email. If unable to email, I can mail them to you if you wish. Regards, Nick

[James Richards]

James      I will look for the Probe articles and see if I can scan and email. If unable to email, I can mail them to you if you wish.      Regards,  Nick

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks, Nick.

Just let me know what you need.

James

[James Richards]

As for Capehart, we knew him as "George Damon" during 1962. The NARA FBI files

[both "302s" & "LHMs"] describe him as a transient gun dealer. He first showed up amidst our Missile Crisis operations during the Summer of 1962, which automatically made him suspect. (Gerry Hemming)

Gerry,

Do you remember if Capehart/Damon could speak Spanish, and do you know if this guy had any connections to C. Osment Moody?

James

[Thomas Graves]

[...] When warned that the local cops & ATTU were "coming-down-heavy" on gun-runners, he [Capeheart/"Damon"] pulled out a brand new business card with the name of a Justice Department official embossed thereon, along with the usual color DOJ seal. He stated more than once that anytime he was stopped by Feds, he simply displayed one of these cards, and told the agents to make the call from a secure telephone -- which quickly caused them to ride off into the sunset !!

When I stated that this wouldn't work with local cops, he said that he didn't exhibit the card, but simply stonewalled them, or bailed himself out of the "vagrancy" charge; but if a ranking cop entered the picture, he would direct him to call the Miami FBI/FO for further info. This routinely caused his immediate release and the return of his impounded convertible "Canoe".

________________________________

Gerry,

What sort of special mission did Capeheart/"Damon" want you and your guys to use his guns for before letting you use them in your Cuban Missile Crisis operations?

(Your description of Capeheart's "gaudy white Cadillac convertible" reminds me of Hunter S. Thompson's "Great White Shark" Caddy in Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas....)

--Thomas

________________________________

Edited February 10, 2013 by Thomas Graves

[Thomas Graves]

deleted

Edited February 10, 2013 by Thomas Graves

[John Dolva]

--Thomas

P.S. Anytime you (or anyone else on this forum for that matter) want to get beaten in a game of chess on the Yahoo! games website, sent me a PM or an e-mail.... Warning: I prefer the Hungarian "Barzca" opening....

Thomas, I'll take on you, or anyone, except cheating with the excellent chinese software, in a game of GO instead of chess. Just choose the handicap and start in appropriate thread section. At best I'm -5, and the best player I've had the pleasure of being decimated by was a 3-dan.

http://www.gobooks.info/mihori.html

http://www.gobooks.info/pics/p78.jpg

Edited June 12, 2007 by John Dolva

[Thomas Graves]

--Thomas

P.S. Anytime you (or anyone else on this forum for that matter) want to get beaten in a game of chess on the Yahoo! games website, sent me a PM or an e-mail.... Warning: I prefer the Hungarian "Barzca" opening....

Thomas, I'll take on you, or anyone, except cheating with the excellent chinese software, in a game of GO instead of chess. Just choose the handicap and start in appropriate thread section. At best I'm -5, and the best player I've had the pleasure of being decimated by was a 3-dan.

http://www.gobooks.info/mihori.html

http://www.gobooks.info/pics/p78.jpg

___________________________________

Hi John,

You're "on," buddy.... I don't play "Go." Not smart enough, I guess. lol I'll send you my Yahoo! games ID by e-mail or PM and maybe we can arrange a time to play chess in a particular "room" there. Going out to dinner now, though.... So, "Later...."

--Thomas

P.S. What do you think about Capeheart/"Damon"?

___________________________________

[John Dolva]

Right, back on point, no meaning to divert.(let's call it a mild 'bump') (No chess for me though. Can't focus enough to be a good player, GO allows for very long games, no time limits)

Capehart/Damon comes up blank at the moment. Will look into it and see if something of relevance to add.

[Francesca Akhtar]

I did a search on the MF site and I got hits under both the name 'Capehart' and 'Damon' but from what I've seen so far both sets of documents seem to be entirely separate from the other, as if two separate people.

Anyway, some interesting ones on Capehart - one CIA memo dated only 2 days before the assassination with some brief biographical data:

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=2

Then what I found interesting is that only four days after the assassination the CIA wanted to carry out a name check of him at various government agencies. I wonder why the sudden interest?

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...bsPageId=381310

Edited February 25, 2008 by Francesca Akhtar

[William Plumlee]

I did a search on the MF site and I got hits under both the name 'Capehart' and 'Damon' but from what I've seen so far both sets of documents seem to be entirely separate from the other, as if two separate people.

Anyway, some interesting ones on Capehart - one CIA memo dated only 2 days before the assassination with some brief biographical data:

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=2

Then what I found interesting is that only four days after the assassination the CIA wanted to carry out a name check of him at various government agencies. I wonder why the sudden interest?

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...bsPageId=381310

Francisca:

This not meant to offend you. I consider you a very good researcher. You can take the following for whats its worth. :

I told this source what I thought about this post when he was alive. I told forum members also:

THE Following is PURE BS.

from an old thread of GPH:

-------------------

"... Jim Lesar, Esq. is the highest rated FOIA expert in this community, and he might well agree that the good judge should have petitioned for a "Vaughan Index" while the matter was still in the "Administrative Law" arena.

As for Capehart, we knew him as "George Damon" during 1962. The NARA FBI files

[both "302s" & "LHMs"] describe him as a transient gun dealer. He first showed up amidst our Missile Crisis operations during the Summer of 1962, which automatically made him suspect. He arrived at the doorstep of our "Federicos" safehouse on NW 6th Ave., driving a gaudy white Cadillac convertible; with the top down of course.

[Tom Dunkin mentions having to sleep in a car outside Federico's one night]

Damon got to the point quickly, in his, what I then thought then, was a Texas, not "Okie" twang. He had guns for us, but we would have to run a "special" mission with these weapons before we could use them elsewhere. When warned that the local cops & ATTU were "coming-down-heavy" on gun-runners, he pulled out a brand new business card with the name of a Justice Department official embossed thereon, along with the usual color DOJ seal. He stated more than once that anytime he was stopped by Feds, he simply displayed one of these cards, and told the agents to make the call from a secure telephone -- which quickly caused them to ride off into the sunset !!

When I stated that this wouldn't work with local cops, he said that he didn't exhibit the card, but simply stonewalled them, or bailed himself out of the "vagrancy" charge; but if a ranking cop entered the picture, he would direct him to call the Miami FBI/FO for further info. This routinely caused his immediate release and the return of his impounded convertible "Canoe".

Manolo Reboso stated [at the Banak Lumber Company "cover" office] that he had seen Damon at Hickory Hill more than once, and that folks there considered him to be a quite reckless "wild-card" -- but in Spanish he used "rienda suelta" [loose reined]; and that we should be careful in dealing with this "Yonny".

Years later, when infrequently watching "Starsky & Hutch", the actor David Soul would remind me of this clown.

We never heard anything on him after 1962, and it was the FOIA releases which reminded us of this one of the many strange dudes-about-town of the era.

Cheers,

GPH ...".

This was post earlier 02-25-08

"... note: (RECAP)

In one field report a photo was shown to a questionable source and another was put beside it with the name Damon written in the margin. (which was not the name of the person in the photo) The source at first said he did not know any of those in the picture. Later he droped the name Damon and connected it with an operation that did not exist. A few days later this source contacted the Miami Station and told a story that Damon was CIA and worked for him in south Florida. A picture was shown this source without the name written in the margin. He ID'ed the photo as Damon. It was not. He was asked to state the name of the operation in south Florida. He could not do that. He took a lie detector test and failed. CI-3 source mention a fake name and the source ID'ed that name as the operation. The source was dismissed at that point. (Miami Station, field report..., classified)

As to Damon being Waters I doubt that as I recall..., Damon was taller and Damon was a code name at the time for operation DAMON, or DEMON ??? memory; concerning Dominican Security Forces. I did know a Damon or of a Damon but this was years later, and I do not think he was associated with the earlier operations (my speculations)

Edited February 25, 2008 by William Plumlee

[Francesca Akhtar]

I did a search on the MF site and I got hits under both the name 'Capehart' and 'Damon' but from what I've seen so far both sets of documents seem to be entirely separate from the other, as if two separate people.

Anyway, some interesting ones on Capehart - one CIA memo dated only 2 days before the assassination with some brief biographical data:

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=2

Then what I found interesting is that only four days after the assassination the CIA wanted to carry out a name check of him at various government agencies. I wonder why the sudden interest?

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...bsPageId=381310

Francisca:

This not meant to offend you. I consider you a very good researcher. You can take the following for whats its worth. :

I told this source what I thought about this post when he was alive. I told forum members also:

THE Following is PURE BS.

from an old thread of GPH:

-------------------

"... Jim Lesar, Esq. is the highest rated FOIA expert in this community, and he might well agree that the good judge should have petitioned for a "Vaughan Index" while the matter was still in the "Administrative Law" arena.

As for Capehart, we knew him as "George Damon" during 1962. The NARA FBI files

[both "302s" & "LHMs"] describe him as a transient gun dealer. He first showed up amidst our Missile Crisis operations during the Summer of 1962, which automatically made him suspect. He arrived at the doorstep of our "Federicos" safehouse on NW 6th Ave., driving a gaudy white Cadillac convertible; with the top down of course.

[Tom Dunkin mentions having to sleep in a car outside Federico's one night]

Damon got to the point quickly, in his, what I then thought then, was a Texas, not "Okie" twang. He had guns for us, but we would have to run a "special" mission with these weapons before we could use them elsewhere. When warned that the local cops & ATTU were "coming-down-heavy" on gun-runners, he pulled out a brand new business card with the name of a Justice Department official embossed thereon, along with the usual color DOJ seal. He stated more than once that anytime he was stopped by Feds, he simply displayed one of these cards, and told the agents to make the call from a secure telephone -- which quickly caused them to ride off into the sunset !!

When I stated that this wouldn't work with local cops, he said that he didn't exhibit the card, but simply stonewalled them, or bailed himself out of the "vagrancy" charge; but if a ranking cop entered the picture, he would direct him to call the Miami FBI/FO for further info. This routinely caused his immediate release and the return of his impounded convertible "Canoe".

Manolo Reboso stated [at the Banak Lumber Company "cover" office] that he had seen Damon at Hickory Hill more than once, and that folks there considered him to be a quite reckless "wild-card" -- but in Spanish he used "rienda suelta" [loose reined]; and that we should be careful in dealing with this "Yonny".

Years later, when infrequently watching "Starsky & Hutch", the actor David Soul would remind me of this clown.

We never heard anything on him after 1962, and it was the FOIA releases which reminded us of this one of the many strange dudes-about-town of the era.

Cheers,

GPH ...".

Tosh, no offence taken. Not knowing much about this subject I like to check things out on my own and see what can be found in available documents etc, not to say that I don't believe you or anyone else's word on the matter. If you understand me.

[William Plumlee]

I did a search on the MF site and I got hits under both the name 'Capehart' and 'Damon' but from what I've seen so far both sets of documents seem to be entirely separate from the other, as if two separate people.

Anyway, some interesting ones on Capehart - one CIA memo dated only 2 days before the assassination with some brief biographical data:

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=2

Then what I found interesting is that only four days after the assassination the CIA wanted to carry out a name check of him at various government agencies. I wonder why the sudden interest?

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...bsPageId=381310

Francisca:

This not meant to offend you. I consider you a very good researcher. You can take the following for whats its worth. :

I told this source what I thought about this post when he was alive. I told forum members also:

THE Following is PURE BS.

from an old thread of GPH:

-------------------

"... Jim Lesar, Esq. is the highest rated FOIA expert in this community, and he might well agree that the good judge should have petitioned for a "Vaughan Index" while the matter was still in the "Administrative Law" arena.

As for Capehart, we knew him as "George Damon" during 1962. The NARA FBI files

[both "302s" & "LHMs"] describe him as a transient gun dealer. He first showed up amidst our Missile Crisis operations during the Summer of 1962, which automatically made him suspect. He arrived at the doorstep of our "Federicos" safehouse on NW 6th Ave., driving a gaudy white Cadillac convertible; with the top down of course.

[Tom Dunkin mentions having to sleep in a car outside Federico's one night]

Damon got to the point quickly, in his, what I then thought then, was a Texas, not "Okie" twang. He had guns for us, but we would have to run a "special" mission with these weapons before we could use them elsewhere. When warned that the local cops & ATTU were "coming-down-heavy" on gun-runners, he pulled out a brand new business card with the name of a Justice Department official embossed thereon, along with the usual color DOJ seal. He stated more than once that anytime he was stopped by Feds, he simply displayed one of these cards, and told the agents to make the call from a secure telephone -- which quickly caused them to ride off into the sunset !!

When I stated that this wouldn't work with local cops, he said that he didn't exhibit the card, but simply stonewalled them, or bailed himself out of the "vagrancy" charge; but if a ranking cop entered the picture, he would direct him to call the Miami FBI/FO for further info. This routinely caused his immediate release and the return of his impounded convertible "Canoe".

Manolo Reboso stated [at the Banak Lumber Company "cover" office] that he had seen Damon at Hickory Hill more than once, and that folks there considered him to be a quite reckless "wild-card" -- but in Spanish he used "rienda suelta" [loose reined]; and that we should be careful in dealing with this "Yonny".

Years later, when infrequently watching "Starsky & Hutch", the actor David Soul would remind me of this clown.

We never heard anything on him after 1962, and it was the FOIA releases which reminded us of this one of the many strange dudes-about-town of the era.

Cheers,

GPH ...".

Tosh, no offence taken. Not knowing much about this subject I like to check things out on my own and see what can be found in available documents etc, not to say that I don't believe you or anyone else's word on the matter. If you understand me.

Francesca: Don't worry about offending me. I am glad to see someone research a subject and at least try to document or find the document trail which could establish a FACT and not an OPINION, or speculation. You keep doing what your doing and I will help when and if I can. The last thing I want to do is mislead anyone as I recall matters from my memory.

[Greg Wagner]

The following story appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on July the 5th, 1995.

One thing though, it says Capehart claimed to have worked on Howard Hughes' Glomar Explorer which raised a Soviet sub in 1968. The sub actually went down in 1968 but wasn't raised until 1974 - which was Project Jennifer.

Also, in the comparison which follows the story, the man on the right was being sought for questioning by HSCA investigators and his image was published in various newspapers. The man on the left was photographed in Dealey Plaza (right in front of the TSBD) after the shooting.

Is the man on the right Capehart?

Some food for thought?

James

**********************************

Judge Sues Over JFK Information

He wants CIA to Answer Questions on Mystery Man

It was the kind of case any hard-boiled DA or cop might look at skeptically -- a Central Valley woman believes her mysterious boyfriend was in a CIA conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy, and she fears for her life.

The boyfriend tells her that Lee Harvey Oswald, the reputed assassin, was just an innocent bystander and that others fired the fatal shots. Top-secret government codes are found on papers in his house. Evidence about the man's possible complicity in the assassination is given to congressional investigators and then disappears during a burglary in Washington. The CIA refuses to talk about it.

And then, years later, the boyfriend dies of a heart attack just hours before he is to be interviewed by the district attorney and a sheriff's detective.

Oliver Stone, where are you?

This may sound like the kind of farfetched tale concocted by wild- eyed conspiracy theorists, but in fact it is the stuff of a lawsuit filed in federal court in Fresno by a respected Madera County judge acting as a private citizen, one who does not like it when the CIA tells him to get off its case.

The judge, who was the district attorney at the time, is David Minier, 61 -- and he now sits on the Municipal Court bench in Chowchilla. He gained a certain fame in the 1970s for prosecuting three young men who had kidnapped 26 Chowchilla schoolchildren and their bus driver.

Two years ago, using the Freedom of Information Act, he sued the CIA after the agency refused to tell Minier whether Claude Barnes Capehart had ever been employed by the CIA and whether Capehart was in Dallas in November 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated.

A federal judge dismissed Minier's suit, but Minier, who is doing all the legal work himself, is appealing the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

The judge may be tilting at windmills -- thousands of books and articles over the past 33 years have failed to come up with a definitive solution to Kennedy's death, the Warren Commission's report notwithstanding. But Minier says he is suing the CIA to release the Kennedy assassination documents as a way to preserve this ``historical research'' on the public record for generations to come.

``I wanted to get it into some form of permanent record,'' he said earlier this week, ``so that if there's any validity to this thing, then the information will be there as a resource. Anything you file in court is there for all time. And someone may come along who has a lot more ability in doing research than I do, and the material will still be there.''

Minier's odd quest about the Kennedy assassination started nearly 20 years ago, when Capehart moved to Chowchilla and opened a well-drilling business. Soon Capehart came to the county sheriff's office and said some men had been sent from ``back East'' to kill him. Sergeant Dale Fore said he would look into it. But after scouring the dusty Central Valley town (population: 6,000), he could find no assassins.

But Capehart seemed like an interesting guy to Fore, and soon he was confiding to the sergeant that he had done some work for the CIA. After a while, Fore called a friend at the FBI and asked about Capehart. Both men concluded that Capehart was a fake, but Minier and Fore were later told by a retired FBI agent that Capehart had been employed by the CIA.

Capehart had told his female friend that he once worked on industrialist Howard Hughes' Glomar Explorer, a deep-sea research vessel that, under CIA sponsorship, raised a Soviet submarine from the floor of the Pacific Ocean in 1968.

In 1978, Kennedy assassination theories were at such a full boil in the United States that Congress formed the House Select Committee on Assassinations and began digging into the tons of muck raked up over the preceding 15 years by dozens of investigators.

Back in Chowchilla, Capehart's female friend, who had seen newspaper photographs of possible assassination conspirators being sought by the committee's investigators, came to Fore and said Capehart's face was in one of the pictures.

The woman, who still fears retribution and declines to be publicly identified even years after Capehart's death, said Capehart told her he was ``in the (Texas School Book) Depository when the president was shot, and Oswald wasn't the only one involved at that time,'' Fore wrote in his police report, which ended up as part of Minier's lawsuit.

She also reportedly said: ``Oswald was not the person who shot the president. Capehart showed (her) a handgun with a silencer, automatic firearms, a cyanide pistol, and passports under an assumed name.'' Capehart, apparently disturbed by the publicity of the congressional investigation, moved to Pahrump, Nev., to lie low.

Then the woman brought Fore a sheet filled with what appeared to be ciphers. She said she had found it in Capehart's papers. Fore added it to his file.

In early 1979, while the House assassinations committee was in full-bore operation, Fore traveled to Washington to attend an FBI training course, a routine career assignment for many local law enforcement officers. While there, he called up committee staffers and told them his tale. They seemed interested and took his information, including the cipher sheet.

When he finished his training course several weeks later, Fore stopped by and asked to have his evidence back. The FBI agents who had interviewed him at the time gave him some of it, but kept the code sheet, saying the ciphers were ``classified government codes.'' When Fore got back to Madera County, he heard that the committee office he had visited had been burglarized, and the evidence he had given the committee's investigators had been stolen.

In July 1979, the assassinations committee concluded that conspiracies were ``likely'' in Kennedy's death. But 17 years later, no government agency has confirmed or refuted that conclusion.

In 1989, Fore and Minier prepared to interview Capehart at his home in Nevada. A few hours before they were to meet him, Capehart, 64, dropped dead of a heart attack.

``After he died,'' Minier said, ``things kind of dried up, in terms of information, and so there was nothing else to do but ask the CIA about it.''

So far, the CIA is saying nothing about Claude Capehart.

So if I am connecting the the dots corrrectly, Capehart and Tony Izquierdo were both being handled by Hal Feeney who was ONI at GITMO, along with Jack Modesett. And this is the same Modesett who was approached by Zamka/Morales in May '62 regarding efforts to change national policy so the base could take a much more aggressive attitude toward Cuba. It fits well with the idea that Izquierdo was the Dal-Tex spotter and makes you wonder what Capehart was doing in the TSBD, if in fact he was there. Fascinating stuff... thank you!

Edited July 21, 2010 by Greg Wagner

[John Dolva]

http://blog.press.org/NPC/NPC_shrdlu/NPC_shrdlu_Chapter_11.htm

?

[John Dolva]

Is Barney related to Sen (Rep, Ind) Homer Capehart?