Religious Groups connected to the JFK Assassination

[Shepard G. Montgomery]

Has anyone on the forum read the "Sinister Forces" trilogy offered by Trine Day?

http://trineday.com/paypal_store/product_pages/sinister_forces_1.html

They look intriguing to me, but I'm almost reticent to pick them up... might be too frightening!

[Robert Howard]

I have Book 3 The Manson Secret.......Levenda is the expert on occult and its relationship to politics in America, Germany and the Soviet Union. He delves into abstract concepts which leaves some, I believe, just a little more than mystified.

I look at JFK research as categorized by the Dewey decimal system, I am not trying to be cute, but when you think about it there are the following areas. HISTORY, social sciences, intelligence agencies, biographies, technology and so on.

Just to make a point, if you've studied the original documents there are several persons interviewed who were literal engineers not "engineers" in the assassination context, ie engineered the assassination. Some just look at it as a coincidence; my view is, that engineers are, financially speaking, middle class to upper-middle class, their presence in these documents is indicative that a large percentage of educated American's viewed JFK as "soft on communism," which had much to do with the political left largely passive during the McCarthy Era, see David Halberstam's The Best and The Brightest regarding this aspect of American history, or even more so "How the State Department lost China," which Halberstam demonstrates

is one of the biggest fallacies of American history....

Halberstam, in my view contextualizes the forces that were in play in the events leading up to Dealey Plaza...

But getting back to Peter Lavenda...the following is from his blog...it is required reading in my book.....

begin

February 23, 2010

Return of the Bishops

"Everything about Tommy Baumler was dark."



-- Timothy Wyllie

Greetings, boys and girls. You may remember my long series of articles (or a series of long articles, mejor dicho) concerning New Orleans, Lee Harvey Oswald, and a veritable apostolic succession of wandering bishops who operated out of Guy Banister's office in the Big Easy. You may recall such names as David Ferrie, Jack Martin, Carl Stanley ... and Thomas Jude Baumler. Well, you'll never believe it, but Tommy Baumler's name came up again in the most bizarre place of all these bizarre places.

He was the lawyer who incorporated the Process Church of the Final Judgment.

Take a breath.

For those of you who need some background on Tommy Baumler, here is an excerpt from my series of articles posted here on the wandering bishops (more may be found in volume one of Sinister Forces):

--

Jack Martin remained a bishop with the American Orthodox Catholic Church to the end of his days, even going so far as to bring in another Banister associate, the corpulent attorney and unapologetic racist Thomas Jude Baumler, to the Orthodox fold, consecrating Baumler a bishop in August of 1974, nearly eleven years after the Kennedy assassination and seven years after the beginning of the Garrison investigation and the deaths of both Stanley and Ferrie. From personal correspondence with an individual involved with this affair, I learned that Baumler had already been ordained a priest by Stanley years before; in other words, prior to Stanley's death in March, 1967. Baumler's status in New Orleans society was assured; he came from an old family and was associated with one of the famous Mardi Gras "crewes".

In addition, according to my informant, Baumler was also a Mason and belonged to the same lodge – the Etoile Polair Lodge of the French Grand Orient – as Mafia don Carlos Marcello, the man for whom David Ferrie was working on the day of the assassination. My informant goes on to insist that Martin could be relied upon to furnish FBI files on

"future applicants for Holy Orders", a strange capability for a hopeless drunk. It is widely rumored that Martin had a source at FBI headquarters in New Orleans who provided him these files, but he also made it known that he was an investigator for the District Attorney's office – something of which the DA was presumably not aware. Yet he had an income of some kind, for he was known to travel extensively throughout the United States for years on one errand or another involving the bishops, a true "wanderer".

What was Baumler's interest in Carl Stanley and the American Orthodox Catholic

Church? Why was it attractive to become consecrated the Bishop of Baton Rouge-New Orleans in this minuscule, obscure church as late as 1974? Soon after his consecration, he went on to consecrate another bishop, this time William Francis Forbes, in October of 1974. It was Baumler, after all, who told J. Gary Shaw in 1981 that Lee Harvey Oswald worked for Guy Banister. He even told Jim Garrison investigator Harold Weisberg in 1969 that he personally met the elusive Oswald himself.

--

Now, in a book entitled Love Sex Fear Death: The Inside Story of the Process Church of the Final Judgment, (Feral House, 2009) former Process member Timothy Wyllie goes into some detail about the founding of the movement and much of the day-to-day events in the lives of its members. It is a fascinating tale for those who are interested, and contains over 100 pages of art, articles, and other disjecta membra of that notorious group. It is on page 74, however, that he drops the name Tommy Baumler and describes the man perfectly. There can be no doubt. In 1967 -- while a priest of the American Orthodox Catholic Church, a Freemason, a hypnotist, a racist -- and as the Jim Garrison investigation into his friends David Ferrie and Jack Martin for their alleged role in the Kennedy assassination was heating up, Tommy Baumler was hanging out with the Process and even going so far as to suggest a name for their group: The Church of Christ and Satan. Wyllie says they had to talk him out of it, and finally settle on the name The Church of the Final Judgment.

Readers may remember the hysteria surrounding the Process from its earliest days. There were accusations that it was a mind-control cult, that they were devil-worshipers, that they were involved with ritual murder, etc etc. The fact that they were involved to a degree with Charles Manson didn't help; the fact that Charlie once famously proclaimed that he was Robert Moore (the co-founder of the Process) didn't help much either, or the interview with Charlie that appeared in the Process magazine. The fact that issues of said magazine bore such themes as Death and Fear was probably another clue to the already paranoid.

But then throw in the Son of Sam connection (made famous by Maury Terry, but to be fair was also bruited about by David Berkowitz himself long after his sentencing, and corroborated by self-described former members of the Process) and you have a truly sinister fantasy. The Process and Charles Manson; the Process and the Son of Sam cult. Okay, that will do.

Then toss in the "dark" Tommy Baumler and the Kennedy assassination conspiracy and you are deep inside Sinister Forces territory.

end

Robert: I don't claim to be knowledgeable about The Process Church of the Final Judgement, but they are still around and according to what little I have read have "mellowed out," but in the 1960's they were what I would considered a "dark force" that more than likely, had something more than a casual relationship with U.S. intelligence.

Cheers

Edited August 13, 2014 by Robert Howard

[Paul Brancato]

I thought I would bump this thread, because in the context of other threads currently being debated about the FBI and Harry Dean it would seem relevant. I have read the first two volumes of Peter Levenda's trilogy Sinister Forces, and am reading the third. One of the subjects Levenda covers, and about which he has personal knowledge (if he is to be believed, and I for one think he is believable) is the wandering Bishops, such as David Ferrie and Jack Martin. Since Paul Trejo lists these two as suspects, and since he has a long running debate on the subject of Harry Dean and the FBI files with Ernie Lazar, I thought it worth while to resurrect this thread.

I listened to a long recent radio interview with Levenda yesterday that touches on the subject, and mentions the personal correspondence between Hoover and Propheta, a Bishop of the church in which Jack Martin and David Ferrie were ordained. If my memory serves, Levenda even claims that Martin worked directly for Hoover. Garrison looked into these 'Bishops' in the context of his investigation into Guy Banister. Levenda claims point blank that at least this particular church, headquartered in the Bronx (near the zoo where Oswald apparently spent some truant days), was an intelligence operation, run by the FBI.

I hope I have these details right, and await corrections and discussions of what is to me an important subject.

[Paul Brancato]

I know there is no direct connection between Oswald and the Bronx 'church' where Levenda worked as a teenager. But it is a very strange juxtaposition. Hank Albarelli, whose book A Secret Order' delves into the possibility that Oswald's truancy in the Bronx may have led him into the hands of George White and MKULTRA, does not explore the possibility that Oswald may have met a 'wandering bishop' there as well.

[Paul Brancato]

I think the dates don't work for Oswald as a teen to have crossed paths in the Bronx with this church. But nevertheless the general subject of wandering bishops is interesting, as it directly intersects the assassinations of JFK and RFK.

[Paul Brancato]

Could the reader please read the opening post in this thread?

[Paul Brancato]

Ok, if no one thinks this line of inquiry is important I would like to know why. Levenda's books are eye opening.

[Larry Hancock]

Paul, I spent a lot of energy on that sort of thing at one time, I'll look for some old notes that showed connections. As with many things it just remained shadowy - including a lot of rumors and gossip about the church in Dallas that was checked for reports of someone fleeing in the Oakdale area. All fascinating but the one thing I noticed, especially as it linked to Crisman and Beckham and some separately some associates of Ferrie was that much of what was going on was simply the equivalent of diploma mills. Write off, send your money, get your credentials, starting holding services and raising money - all a scam - or use it to get donations, to use as an entry into communities or in many cases as the 60's proceeded, to use it to obtain draft deferments. That got to be a big deal. The reason so many of those with somewhat similar credentials were wondering was that they were literally old time con artists, using religion as a tool. Others, like Ferrie, were using the credentials for very personal, ideological and psychological purposes.

Anyway, I'll pass along any notes I can find but as with much else its deeply buried. I would urge you to examine Beckham's history with his mail order credentials, its a perfect illustration of at least one type of "wondering bishop".

[Paul Brancato]

Thank you Larry. Levenda came to the conclusion, in part from his personal recollections of a branch of the old Catholic Church (can't recall the exact title) near the Bronx Zoo where he worked for a time, that this church and perhaps other connected diploma mills were in fact intelligence operations. On the surface your recollections are right, but there may be deeper levels to what appears on the surface to be useless activity. I have been confused over the years as to the real story behind Albert Bowen or Osborne, who travelled with Oswald to MC. Mae Brussell had her spectacular version of this story. The WC apparently spent some time on this. I wonder if Ernie is reading this, whether he has spent any time researching FBI files on the wandering bishops. I know from personal experience that none of my friends have ever encountered a wandering bishop. Has anyone here? I doubt it. Yet there are several who intersect with Oswald, something that concerned Garrison. Its not just Beckham and Crisman, its also Bowen and Ferrie and Jack Martin. And of course there is the wandering bishop/hypnotist in the RFK Sirhan story.

Larry - do you think RFK was killed by Sirhan Sirhan, or do you accept Noguchi's autopsy findings, indicating a shot at point blank range from behind?

Paul T. - without referring to Walker, what is your take on this subject? You mention Crisman, Beckham, Ferrie, and Martin in your list of subjects, as well as Banister, who seemed to be running some kind of operation with all of these fellows? Is it just coincidental that they all were wandering bishops? Have you read Levenda's books? What of Crisman's shared background with Banister in the earliest ufo stories from 1947-48? Seriously, none of us need you to repeat your thesis, but I for one am curious on your take on this aspect of these suspects.

Ernie - do you have any research on the wandering bishops? Did you ever look into the ties between Propheta and Hoover?

Edited October 20, 2014 by Paul Brancato

[Larry Hancock]

Paul, I can tell you that by 1966 many of the "mills" were subjects of law enforcement interest, partially because some of the certificate holders were accumulating ongoing investigations and convictions for fraud, and also because a significant number of young men were using them - and widely referring them for use - in bogus military deferment requests. Agencies interested included both the FBI, some State and local law enforcement agencies and the IRS. Personally I've never seen any sign that the CIA used these sorts of things for covers, one reason being that a religious cover would not get them into the circles normally being targeted. I'm generally aware of Peters work and had some brief contact with him a couple of years ago but am not current on it. As to the Ferrie contacts, certainly Beckhan and Crisman were not into that stuff in 1963, as I recall, that came later as Beckham left NO. Ferrie's interest to me seems pretty personal but he was also in certain social circles which were "unorthodox" and whose members sometimes influenced each other on such beliefs. I saw something of the same thing in the California circles which began to heavily used such credentials, they created a sense of trust and authority that was often misused.

As to RFK, certainly a conspiracy and I'm still comfortable that my essays on that help prove it (they are in the RFK area of the MFF site). They have my views on Sirhan. As to the sponsors, about all I can say is that if I could get a good solid half our with Sandra Serrano I think we might get to the core of it. Unfortunately she has been burned too many times at this point. However I believe her story and the polka dot dress girl are indeed the key - to that conspiracy and to Siran's own behavior.

[Paul Brancato]

Larry - according to Levenda Bishop Propheta was asking the FBI for clearance on new requests for ordination by the late ''60's. Do you not find it beyond strange that there were so many 'Bishops' involved with Banister and Oswald? What of Levenda's claim that Propheta, and by extension Carl Stanley, who died the same day as Ferrie, were FBI assets?

[Larry Hancock]

Paul, I have to ask what documentation or source Levenda has on the FBI clearance - if its solid enough the only thing that strikes me is that as I mentioned in the late 60's many of those with ordination papers were active as draft dodgers and were being investigated and prosecuted by the FBI. On that basis I can see that they might well be investigating who he was giving certificates to.. as to Bishops in New Orleans, given Ferrie's religious interests and is effect on his friends I don't know if that surprises me or not. I would need to visit the list, look at the social network etc...been to long to offer a top of the head opinion. As to the last question, I can honestly say that the FBI had thousands of sources who walked walked both sides of the legal line - it seems to me that many of them looked on being a source as offering them some sort of leverage. Again I would have to know a lot more than I do aobut those two to offer an opinion - my trip into this subject was a good decade ago and I'm not trusting my memory beyond the general impressions in my earlier post. Plus, after two abortive attempts to locate the proper notebook, I'm no closer to refreshing my memory than before. Sorry.

[Stephen Roy]

Larry:

You're right about the diploma mills ("ordination mills"). There was publicity about an HEW investigation in 1960, and Jack Martin claimed that the whole Carl Stanley thing was such an investigation. By about 1962-3, Ferrie went off with another offshoot of these groups. Although unspoken at the time, the one run by George Hyde was one of the first "gay-friendly" denominations. Hyde was celebrated until his recent death (and after) as an LGBT pioneer.

[Larry Hancock]

Thanks Stephen, I do recall that in the latter part of the 60's several of the diploma mill type sources which were being used for draft dodging were getting referrals from "gay friendly" pastors in California, in some instances that appears to have been their entree to certain groups, especially among college students. Just another historical factor to stir into our mix...

[Paul Brancato]

Larry - if you go back to the first post of this thread on page one Levenda's three part blog called the Bishop and the Boys is quoted in its entirety. Levenda worked for Bishop Propheta as a teenager in the Bronx, and claims he was told by Propheta of his association with J Edgar Hoover. I have read Levenda's Sinister Forces, in which he goes into the wandering bishops more completely. I can't locate it now (thank kindle) but I think I recall that Levenda personally saw letters between Hoover and Propheta, and claims that Hoover personally gave Propheta some kind of award. In any case, read the first post. Carl Stanley, a wandering bishop in the same Old American Catholic Church and I think the Bishop that consecrated David Ferrie, died about two weeks after Ferrie. According to Levenda, at least 5 wandering bishops worked for Guy Banister. Jack Marin gave an interview to the FBI around Nov 25 1963 in which he talks about Ferrie and claims that Ferrie knew Oswald, and that he, Martin, had seen a picture of Ferrie with Oswald in Ferrie's house. This was years before the pictures actually surfaced. In addition, Carl Stanley came forward to the FBI right after the assassination of JFK claiming that Ferrie and Martin were involved. Levenda's supposition that these 'diploma mills' were intelligence operations is interesting and believable.