William Seymour

[Francesca Akhtar]

I was wondering if anyone knew anything more about William Seymour? I find him an interesting character but one who seems a little mysterious - i.e. not much seems to be known about him. Other than what's written on John's page on this site and a few little bits and pieces in books, I've never come across much detailed info on him.

Does anyone know of his whereabouts today - is he still alive? Or if anyone has ever spoken to him direct about his alleged role as an 'Oswald double' in the JFK case.

[John Simkin]

Does anyone know of his whereabouts today - is he still alive? Or if anyone has ever spoken to him direct about his alleged role as an 'Oswald double' in the JFK case.

William Seymour is still alive. According to Seymour, he did not visit the home of Sylvia Odio.

[Francesca Akhtar]

Does anyone know of his whereabouts today - is he still alive? Or if anyone has ever spoken to him direct about his alleged role as an 'Oswald double' in the JFK case.

William Seymour is still alive. According to Seymour, he did not visit the home of Sylvia Odio.

Have you managed to speak to him John? Do you believe he is telling the truth about his not being 'Leon'. I am so divided on the Odio issue of who I think it was I really don't know!

Aside from the Odio incident I have always wondered what his 'exact' role was in all of this? I wonder if he has said anything more?

[John Simkin]

Have you managed to speak to him John? Do you believe he is telling the truth about his not being 'Leon'. I am so divided on the Odio issue of who I think it was I really don't know!

Aside from the Odio incident I have always wondered what his 'exact' role was in all of this? I wonder if he has said anything more?

No, but I know people who have spoken to Seymour. I am convinced that he had nothing to do with the assassination of JFK. However, like all active Interpen members, including Gerry Hemming, he thinks he knows who carried out the assassination. That is not to say that the people who told them these stories were not lying.

[John Simkin]

This is what I have on William Seymour. He was born in Fort Benton, Montana. Seymour spent three and a half years in the United States Navy in the Asiatic Pacific region.

Seymour was a member of Interpen (Intercontinental Penetration Force) that was established in 1961 by Gerry P. Hemming. Other members included Loran Hall, Roy Hargraves, Lawrence Howard, Steve Wilson, Howard K. Davis, Ed Collins, Bill Dempsey, Dick Whatley, Ramigo Arce, Ronald Augustinovich, Joe Garman, Edmund Kolby, James Arthur Lewis, Dennis Harber, Ralph Schlafter, Manuel Aguilar and Oscar Del Pinto.

This group of experienced soldiers were involved in training members of the anti-Castro groups funded by the Central Intelligence Agency in Florida in the early 1960s. When the government began to crack down on raids from Florida in 1962, Interpen set up a new training camp in New Orleans. The group carried out a series of raids on Cuba in an attempt to undermine the government of Fidel Castro. This involved a plan to create a war by simulating an attack on Guantanamo Naval Base.

On 25th September, 1963, Silvia Odio had a visit from three men who claimed they were from New Orleans. Two of the men, Leopoldo and Angelo, said they were members of the Junta Revolucionaria. The third man, Leon, was introduced as an American sympathizer who was willing to take part in the assassination of Fidel Castro. After she told them that she was unwilling to get involved in any criminal activity, the three men left.

Silvia Odio became convinced that after the assassination of John F. Kennedy that Leon was Lee Harvey Oswald. Odio gave evidence to the Warren Commission and one of its lawyers commented: "Silvia Odio was checked out thoroughly... The evidence is unanimously favorable... Odio is the most significant witness linking Oswald to the anti-Castro Cubans."

Research carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on behalf of the Warren Commission suggested that the three men were Seymour, Loran Hall and Lawrence Howard. These were all members of Interpen. Hall later claimed Leon was not Lee Harvey Oswald. Seymour also denied he visited Odio.

The author, Anthony Summers, suggests that the visit had "been a deliberate ploy to link Junta Revolucionaria, a left-wing exile group, with the assassination". However, G. Robert Blakey interviewed Seymour, Loran Hall and Lawrence Howard and claims that they did not visit Silvia Odio. Seymour told researcher, Paris Flammonde, that he had been in Miami when John F. Kennedy was killed.

[John Simkin]

This is what I have on William Seymour. He was born in Fort Benton, Montana. Seymour spent three and a half years in the United States Navy in the Asiatic Pacific region.

Seymour was a member of Interpen (Intercontinental Penetration Force) that was established in 1961 by Gerry P. Hemming. Other members included Loran Hall, Roy Hargraves, Lawrence Howard, Steve Wilson, Howard K. Davis, Ed Collins, Bill Dempsey, Dick Whatley, Ramigo Arce, Ronald Augustinovich, Joe Garman, Edmund Kolby, James Arthur Lewis, Dennis Harber, Ralph Schlafter, Manuel Aguilar and Oscar Del Pinto.

This group of experienced soldiers were involved in training members of the anti-Castro groups funded by the Central Intelligence Agency in Florida in the early 1960s. When the government began to crack down on raids from Florida in 1962, Interpen set up a new training camp in New Orleans. The group carried out a series of raids on Cuba in an attempt to undermine the government of Fidel Castro. This involved a plan to create a war by simulating an attack on Guantanamo Naval Base.

On 25th September, 1963, Silvia Odio had a visit from three men who claimed they were from New Orleans. Two of the men, Leopoldo and Angelo, said they were members of the Junta Revolucionaria. The third man, Leon, was introduced as an American sympathizer who was willing to take part in the assassination of Fidel Castro. After she told them that she was unwilling to get involved in any criminal activity, the three men left.

Silvia Odio became convinced that after the assassination of John F. Kennedy that Leon was Lee Harvey Oswald. Odio gave evidence to the Warren Commission and one of its lawyers commented: "Silvia Odio was checked out thoroughly... The evidence is unanimously favorable... Odio is the most significant witness linking Oswald to the anti-Castro Cubans."

Research carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on behalf of the Warren Commission suggested that the three men were Seymour, Loran Hall and Lawrence Howard. These were all members of Interpen. Hall later claimed Leon was not Lee Harvey Oswald. Seymour also denied he visited Odio.

The author, Anthony Summers, suggests that the visit had "been a deliberate ploy to link Junta Revolucionaria, a left-wing exile group, with the assassination". However, G. Robert Blakey interviewed Seymour, Loran Hall and Lawrence Howard and claims that they did not visit Silvia Odio. Seymour told researcher, Paris Flammonde, that he had been in Miami when John F. Kennedy was killed.

[John Simkin]

Namebase entry for William Seymour:

http://www.namebase.org/xsen/William-Seymour.html

DiEugenio,J. Destiny Betrayed. 1992 (346)

Duffy,J. Ricci,V. The Assassination of John F. Kennedy. 1992 (337-8)

EIR. Dope, Inc. 1992 (474-5)

Gritz,J. Called to Serve. 1991 (502, 529-31)

LaFontaine,R.& M. Oswald Talked. 1996 (245-6)

Newman,J. Oswald and the CIA. 1995 (257, 349)

Russell,D. The Man Who Knew Too Much. 1992 (480-1)

Scott,P.D... The Assassinations: Dallas and Beyond. 1976 (103-4, 115)

[John Simkin]

An interesting picture of William Seymour. Do you think he looks like Lee Harvey Oswald?

[Antti Hynonen]

John Simkin wrote: "An interesting picture of William Seymour. Do you think he looks like Lee Harvey Oswald?"

Answer: Antti Hynonen

No John, not at all. The best match so far would be Robert Oswald, his brother.

By the way, the way I recall Sylvia Odio's reaction to seeing Lee Oswald being arrested and on TV soon after JFK's murder, leaves me no potion but to believe that Lee Oswald actually was the guy at Sylvia's home that day.

[John Simkin]

By the way, the way I recall Sylvia Odio's reaction to seeing Lee Oswald being arrested and on TV soon after JFK's murder, leaves me no potion but to believe that Lee Oswald actually was the guy at Sylvia's home that day.

I agree.

Richard E. Sprague claims in The Taking of America (1985) that Seymour was one of the gunmen.

The conspiracy to assassinate John Kennedy began in a series of discussions held in New Orleans in the summer of 1963. The men in the discussions were extremely angry that Kennedy had stopped plans and preparations for another invasion of Cuba (scheduled for the latter part of 1963.) One of the instigators was David Ferrie, a CIA contract agent who had been training pilots in Guatemala for the invasion. Meetings held in Ferrie's apartment in New Orleans were attended by Clay Shaw, William Seymour and several Cubans. Plans for assassinating President Kennedy developed out of those early meetings. Others whose support was sought by the group included Guy Banister, Major L. M. Bloomfield, Loran Hall, Lawrence Howard, Sergio Arcacha Smith and Carlos Prio Socarras.

During this period in the summer of 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald was working for Guy Banister on some anti-Castro projects and used the Communist cover of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Oswald attended some of the meetings where JFK's assassination was discussed.

Oswald either approached the FBI or they approached him in the later summer of 1963, and he began to tell the FBI about the plans of the group to assassinate JFK. Oswald had been a secret informant for the FBI since mid-1962.

In September, the group moved the scene of their planning to Mexico City. There they solicited the assistance of Guy Gabaldin, a CIA agent. Meetings were held in the apartment of Gabaldin, attended by Shaw, Ferrie, Seymour, Gabaldin and Oswald on at least three occasions. Others were brought into the conspiracy at this point. These included John Howard Bowen (alias Albert Osborne), Ronald Augustinovich, Mary Hope, Emilio Santana, Harry Dean, Richard Case Nagell, and "Frenchy" (an adventurer who had been working with Seymour, Santana, Ferrie, Howard and others on the Cuban invasion projects in the Florida Keys). Fred Lee Crisman, Jim Hicks and Jim Braden (alias Eugene Hale Brading) were also recruited at this point.

Oswald continued to inform on the group to the FBI in Dallas. In mid- to late September the assassination group decided to make Oswald the patsy in the murder. They had discussed the need for a patsy in the earliest meetings in New Orleans. Billy Seymour, who resembled Oswald, was selected to use Oswald's name and to plant evidence in New Orleans, Dallas and Mexico, which could later be used to frame him. In addition, another man under CIA surveillance in Mexico City also used Oswald's name in a probable attempt to make it appear that Oswald was headed for Cuba. His name may have been Johnny Mitchell Deveraux. His picture appears in the Warren Commission Volumes as CE 237.

The team needed financial support for the assassination. They received it from Carlos Prio Socarras in Miami, who brought more than 50 million dollars out of Cuba. They also received money from Banister, and from three Texas millionaires who hated Kennedy: Sid Richardson, Clint Murchison, and Jean DeMenil (of the Schlumberger Co.). The Murchison-Richardson contribution also included soliciting the assistance of high-level men in the Dallas police force. They were powerful members of the Dallas Citizens Council that controlled the city at that time.

The group in Mexico City planned to assassinate JFK in Miami, Chicago or Dallas, using different gunmen in each case. The Miami plan failed because the Secret Service found out about it in advance and kept JFK out of the open. The Chicago plan backfired when JFK canceled his plans to attend the Army-Navy game at Soldiers Field in early November. The group set up two assassination teams for Dallas. One was in Dealey Plaza; the second was near the International Trade Mart where JFK's luncheon speech was to be delivered.

The best evidence of CIA (Deputy-Director of Plans) involvement is the fact that the majority of the known participants were contract agents or direct agents of the CIA. In Mexico City, the meetings were held in the apartment of Guy Gabaldin, a CIA (DDP) agent, working for the Mexico City station chief. Others attending the meetings who were CIA (DDP) contract or direct agents included Clay Shaw, David Ferrie, Albert Osborne, Harry Dean, Richard Case Nagell, Ronald Augustinovich, William Seymour, Emilio Santana and Fred Lee Crisman. It is likely (but not yet provable by direct evidence) that the group sought and obtained from the acting or permanent CIA station chief in Mexico, assistance or approval to go ahead with assassination plans. Tad Szulc claims that a CIA source can prove that E. Howard Hunt was acting station chief in Mexico City at the time of the Gabaldin apartment meetings (August and September 1963). Hunt has denied under oath before the Rockefeller Commission that he was in Mexico.

In 1967 Richard Helms told a group of CIA officials, including Victor Marchetti, that both Clay Shaw and David Ferrie were CIA (DDP) contract agents and that Shaw had to be given CIA protection and assistance in his New Orleans trial. This is a strong indication that Hunt and Helms gave "turn of the head" approval to the Shaw-Ferrie assassination plan as a minimum form of support.

The assassination group, having failed in Miami and Chicago, moved an operational team into Dallas during the second week in November of 1963. Shaw, Ferrie, Gabaldin and other high-level plotters travelled in other directions, establishing alibis as planned. On November 22, Gabaldin was in Mexico City, Shaw was in San Francisco, and Ferrie was in New Orleans. The team moving into Dallas included Albert Osborne, William Seymour, Emilio Santana, Frenchy, Fred Crisman, Jim Hicks, Jim Braden, and a new recruit from Los Angeles, Jack Lawrence. There was also a back-up rifle team of Cubans to be used at a location near the International Trade Mart in the event something went wrong at Dealey Plaza.

The teams stayed at two locations in Dallas for two weeks. One was a rooming house run by a woman named Tammie True. During this period final preparations for the assassination in Dealey Plaza were made. These included the collecting of and planting of evidence used to frame Oswald, the recruiting of the Dallas police participants, and the plans for the escape of the team members by car and by train. The riflemen selected were William Seymour in the Depository Building, Jack Lawrence and Frenchy on the grassy knoll, and Emilio Santana in the Dal Tex building. Jim Hicks was set up as radio coordinator and a man with each of the riflemen had a two-way radio...

Upon a visual and oral signal from the man at the wall and upon a radio command from Hicks, the team fired its first round of shots. Crisman received the command from Hicks and caused Frenchy to fire a shot from a position behind the fence on the knoll, about twenty feet west of the corner of the fence. This shot missed. The umbrella man fired a shot using his small-bore umbrella gun. When this shot struck JFK in the throat, the dart paralyzed JFK and later presented by Commander Humes to the FBI.[2] The shot was fired at Zapruder frame 189: JFK was behind a large oak tree, hidden from the sixth floor window of the TSBD Building. On command from Braden, Emilio Santana fired his first shot two seconds later from the second floor window of the Dal Tex building at Z 225 after JFK came out from behind the sign in Zapruder's film. The shot struck JFK in the back about 5 3/4" down from the collar line, penetrated to a depth of about two inches and stopped. The bullet fell out of JFK's back somewhere in or at the Parkland Hospital, or perhaps travelled down inside the body of the President, and was never recovered.

William Seymour fired his shot from the west end of the TSBD Building upon command from his radio man between Z 230 and Z 237, after Santana's shot. He used a Mauser rifle with no telescopic sight. While he was aiming at JFK, he fired high and to the right, hitting John Connally in the back. The bullet travelled through Connally's chest and then entered his left thigh. The bullet fell out of his thigh in or near Parkland Hospital and was never recovered. Governor Connally's wrist was not hit at that time.

Jack Lawrence did not fire a shot in the first round because from his cupola position he did not have a clear shot.

Hicks gave a second radio command for another round of shots as JFK passed the Stemmons Freeway sign.

Emilio Santana fired his second shot between Z 265 and Z 275. The bullet narrowly missed JFK, passed over the top of his head and over the top of the limousine's windshield. It travelled on to strike the south curb of Main Street, breaking off a piece of concrete which flew up and hit James Tague. The bullet either disintegrated or flew into the area beyond the overpass. It was not found.

William Seymour may have fired a second shot which may have struck JFK in the upper right part of his head at Z 312. That bullet disintegrated.

Upon command from his radio man, Jack Lawrence fired his first shot from a pedestal on the west side of the south entrance to the western cupola on the grassy knoll. The shot may have hit Connally's wrist.

Frenchy fired the fatal shot through the trees from his position behind the fence.

The Lawrence shot or possibly the second Seymour shot produced a bullet fragment that passed through Connally's right wrist at Z 313. At that time his wrist was elevated and nearly directly in front of JFK's head, in such a position that Connally's right palm was facing JFK as the governor fell into his wife's arms. The fragment entered the front of his wrist and exited from the back.

[William Kelly]

I just found this thread while looking for something else and thought I would revitalize it given the new attention Kaiser has focused on Hall.

BK

[John Simkin]

Has Willaim Seymour's HSCA interview been released yet?

I don't think it has. It is due to be released in 2017. Seymour is still alive but unlike Hemming and he has never been willing to talk to researchers although he does read this forum.

I think the hostility shown by people like Hall, Seymour and Plumlee towards Hemming is significant. In an interview with Alan J. Weberman in April 1977, about Gerry P. Hemming, Hall stated that "Hemming is a CIA punk, OK? I've known the SOB for fourteen years. He turned his own goddam crews in so he wouldn't have to go to Cuba. He's fingered me on my own goddam deals and caused me to get arrested."

I suspect that Hemming was involved in setting-up Hall and Seymour. I wonder what he meant when he said: "He turned his own goddam crews in so he wouldn't have to go to Cuba."

After talking to Seymour's employer, Beach Welding and Supplies Company, Miami Beach, Florida, the FBI became convinced that he had not visited Silvia Odio.

[Lee Forman]

I'd be delighted to correspond with Bill Seymour - but I can't see to locate him. I did try sending him an email, but without a reply. If he's still checking out the forum, and would be okay to connect - he can always shoot me an email at lforman23@comcast.net

Curious to get Seymour's take on Hemming. Hemming mentioned Seymour a few times in passing - one reference was to Seymour's humorous penchant for deliberately mispronouncing, or stiltedly pronouncing his Spanish when speaking with the Cubans [May Ya-moh] -Hemming got a kick out of that apparently.

- lee