The Oak Cliff "Safe Houses"

[Ashton Gray]

This topic has been started specifically to list and identify as clearly and accurately as possible "safe houses" of intelligence agencies that were operational in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas during and around the time frame of the Kennedy assassination. This is not a catch-all topic for "Buildings and Architecture of Dallas That Might Have a Suspect Cachet." Please make contributions that are on-topic and informative.

EDIT NOTE: I will continue to edit with updates the list of safe houses immediately below to keep it as current as possible when new information is supplied in this thread. I'm am preserving all versions of the list, but I see no point in perpetuating here in the first message some of the early confusions that existed when this topic was started. My deep appreciation to all who have contributed to sorting this out. —Ashton

Here is the current list:

• THE 1026 NORTH BECKLEY STREET SAFE HOUSE
  Jack White has supplied an address for this safe house as being 1026 North Beckley. That is exactly the same address as the rooming house in which Lee Harvey Oswald was renting a room at the time of the assassination. Jack says that the safe house is a separate building on the same property, in back of the main house, that it faces an alley, and was "only about 50 feet from Oswald's room." Jack says he was taken there and shown the place by Jim Marrs, who had been shown it by Tosh Plumlee
  Tosh Plumlee has said the following in pertinent part: "When I later learned that Oswald had been arrested as the lone assassin, I remembered having met him...in Dallas at an Oak Cliff safe house on North Beckley Street run by Alpha 66's Hernandez group, who had worked out of Miami prior to the assassination." In another place, Plumlee said: "I went to another safe house and that safe house was directly behind where Oswald had rented a room, in the alley, and I carved my initials on the draining board up there at that time and that was a gun running operation and Oswald was renting the front house. I saw him there briefly but did not talk to him."
  In another reference to this North Beckley Street Safe House, Plumlee introduces a reference to "Zang's [sic] Blvd" in association with "Hernandez" and "Alpha 66," something which caused some confusion temporarily. But N. Zang Boulevard diagonally intersects N. Beckley Street very close to 1026 N. Beckley Street, so this is being interpreted as a cross-street reference to the same safe house. [NOTE: As Zang Boulevard continues northeast from N. Beckely Street, it becomes Houston Street Viaduct, which becomes S. Houston Street, through Dealey Plaza.]
  THE COUNTRY CLUB SAFE HOUSE
  So far there is no specific known address for this safe house. Tosh Plumlee is on record saying it was "in Oak Cliff right next to the [Oak Cliff] Country Club on Bar Harbor Drive." Peter Lemkin indicates that he has seen this safe house, but he says that it was "a few streets away" from the Oak Cliff Country Club. Since the Oak Cliff Country Club appears to be on W. Red Bird Lane, the reference to Bar Harbor Drive may be the street the safe house was on, since Bar Harbor Drive appears on a map to be "several streets away" from the entrance to the Oak Cliff Country Club. An address is needed for it. Peter Lemkin suggests that Jim Marrs has an actual address. So far Jim Marrs hasn't joined the discussion on this.
  The Country Club Safe House is where Plumlee said he went first after arriving in Dallas at Dallas Executive Airport—which Plumlee uniformly calls "Redbird Airport"—and then went to again after the assassination before returning to the airport to depart. The airport that Plumlee calls "Redbird" is on W. Red Bird (two words) Lane, diagonally northwest across W. Red Bird Lane from the Oak Cliff Country Club, where S. Polk Street intersects W. Red Bird Lane.
  THE SPORTATORIUM SAFE HOUSE
  The Dallas Sportatorium was at 1000 S. Industrial Boulevard in Dallas, at the intersection of Cadiz Street on the outskirts of the Oak Cliff area. It is no longer there.
  The information on this safe house comes from Peter Lemkin, citing Plumlee, who says that it was used very shortly after the assassination by "Sergio," who had been with Tosh Plumlee in Dealey Plaza at the time of the murder. The supplied "reason" for Sergio going into this safe house just after the murder was "to change clothes." This is absurd on its face; Plumlee and Sergio went from there to the Country Club Safe House.
  Lemkin goes on to say: "The Sportatorium was yet another catagory - places not a home that could be used to hide, blend-in, find a contact, ask for help, change clothes, use as a dead drop, know that you were safe for a short time, hide a weapon, pick up money or weapon, shower, change clothes, etc. et al...even leave a dead body no questions asked, if needed."
  THE HARLANDALE SAFE HOUSE
  According to information in a County of Dallas Sheriff's Department Supplementary Investigation Report of 23 November 1963, there was a house at 3128 Harlandale Avenue in which "some Cubans had been having meetings on the week ends" for several months "and were possibly connected with the 'Freedom for Cuba Party' of which Oswald was a member."
  Plumlee makes an oblique and very unclear reference to Harlandale (which in the transcript of his interview is misspelled "Harlendale") in the context of discussing several safe houses.
  In an addendum to the Supplementary Investigation Report cited above, but dated 26 November 1963, it says: "I learned today that sometime between seven days before the president was shot and the day after he was shot these Cubans moved from this house. My informant [unnamed] stated that the subject Oswald had been to this house before."
  Thanks to Michael Hogan for supplying pointers to the available records on this place.
  THE ZOO SAFE HOUSE
  Here is everything that I have on this purported Zoo Safe House, and it is pretty vague in the way it's presented by Tosh Plumlee: "...In '62 when I came back into Dallas area, that, through the Dallas Cubans...there was a safe house here in Dallas, Oak Cliff, two of 'em. There was a small two bedroom frame type house that was located in Oak Cliff not far from the zoo where the old inner urban track used to go through. I mean there's a highline [sic—?] down through there now, at that place..."
  On maps there is the indication of a railroad track not far at all southeast of the location of the Dallas Zoo, which is at 650 R L Thornton Freeway (35E), at the Marsalis Avenue exit. It must be noted that this is just a few blocks from where Dallas Police officer J.D. Tippet was murdered.
  THE TRUE SAFE HOUSE
  There are persistent rumors of a safe house purportedly run by a stripper with the nom de nude of "Tammi True." Any information that anyone can supply on this would be greatly appreciated.
  

That's all I can determine with any relative certainty so far.

My hope is that others will come along to clarify and amplify, not further muddy the waters on these safe houses.

Ashton Gray

Edited December 17, 2006 by Ashton Gray

[Francesca Akhtar]

Hi Ashton,

I'm no expert but I believe one safe house was on Harlendale in Oak Cliff I think. I am also interested in one supposed safe house which according to Richard Sprague in 'The Taking of America 1,2,3' was run by stripper Tammi True but it didn't give an exact location for where this was or a source for this info as far as I can remember.

[Jack White]

"Jack White has supplied an address for this safe house as being 1026 North Beckley. At first I was heartened at receiving this information, then almost immediately discovered that is exactly the same address as the rooming house in which Lee Harvey Oswald was renting a room at the time of the assassination. Therefore I'm now more confused than ever. Jack says that the safe house faces an alley, and was "only about 50 feet from Oswald's room."

Oswald's rooming house faced 1026 N. Beckley. In the backyard of that

residence is another wood framed outbuilding which faces the alley behind

1026. They are separate buildings. It is sort of like a garage apartment

opening onto the alley instead of Beckley...at least the building which

Tosh showed Jim Marrs and Jim showed me.

Jack

[Ashton Gray]

Hi Ashton,

I'm no expert but I believe one safe house was on Harlendale in Oak Cliff I think. I am also interested in one supposed safe house which according to Richard Sprague in 'The Taking of America 1,2,3' was run by stripper Tammi True but it didn't give an exact location for where this was or a source for this info as far as I can remember.

Hi Francesca. Thanks.

On the Harlendale item, do you have a particular source for it? I ask because Plumlee mentions Harlendale, but in one of his patented "Plumlee Incomprehensibles." Here's the exact quote with Harlendale in it (which I edited out before, for reasons which I hope will be obvious):

• TOSH PLUMLEE: ...In '62 when I came back into Dallas area, that, through the Dallas Cubans over on, not Harlendale Street, but there was a "safe" house here in Dallas, Oak Cliff, two of'em.
  

You know, some days I send up a silent thanks that Plumlee is only trying to help, because the thought of what he might accomplish if he was trying to confuse things just scares the beejeezus out of me.

So there: it's "not Harlendale Street." Of course, it's not Alaska, or Wall Street, or the Eiffel Tower, or a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, either.

Whether or not that is some oblique reference to the existence of some other safe house that was on Harlendale Street is known only to Plumlee, God, and a few Oriental mystics. And they ain't talkin'.

Unless, of course, you have some other source for a Harlendale Street safe house. Then we're in bid'ness.

If you get any actual reference on the Tammi True lead, please post it.

Thanks again.

Ashton

[Michael Hogan]

Hi Francesca. Thanks.

On the Harlendale item, do you have a particular source for it?

....Unless, of course, you have some other source for a Harlendale Street safe house. Then we're in bid'ness.

Another one of those anecdotal accounts:

http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk...Vol19_0276b.htm

Interestingly enough, Walthers also reported that when they searched the house of Ruth Paine, "also found was a set of metal file boxes containing records that appeared to be the names and activities of Cuban sympathizers. All of this evidence was confiscated and turned over to Captain Fritz...."

http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk...Vol19_0269b.htm

(bottom of page)

In his excellent book Someone Would Have Talked, Larry Hancock writes:

Author Eric Tagg reports in Brush with Destiny, an excellent manuscript on the life of Buddy Walthers, Dallas County Deputy Sheriff, that Walthers was contacted on the evening of November 22 by his mother-in-law. She lived next door to the house on Harlandale that had started to receive a lot of mysterious late night visitors in October and November. She had become suspicious of her new neighbors who had moved in only 2-3 months before, and who held frequent meetings lasting long into the nights. Apparently, she felt that these Cubans might somehow be connected to Lee Oswald; in fact she told Walthers that she had seen someone looking very much like Oswald going into the house.

Walthers continued his own investigation of the house and its occupants. He found that one occupant was Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberrio, and that Frank Ellsworth of the ATF was indeed monitoring Orcarberrio's armaments buying efforts at the time of the assassination. Walthers concluded his investigation and on November 26, he submitted a follow-up report.

There are no records indicating the Secret Service ever pursued Walther's report. The CIA did, but was confused (it would seem) by a misspelling of Harlandale in Walther's original report and dropped the inquiry on the grounds that no such address existed. The FBI managed to locate the address but did no more than simply confirm that the Cubans and Orcarberrio had been there and departed.

An examination of an FBI follow-up on Walther's report is even more revealing. It seems that the FBI had a source within Alpha 66 in Dallas who reported to it that Oswald was not associated with Alpha 66 in any way and had never been to the house on Harlandale. The same report notes that the source later moved to Puerto Rico after the assassination. Since we know the Rodriguez Orcarberrio made such a move, it is possible that the FBI's source clearing the house on Harlandale may have been one of the persons reported as being in contact with Oswald. The FBI report made no mention of the fact that in 1964 the Secret Service listed Orcarberrio as a potential Presidential threat, nor does it mention yet another, separate FBI report in which a witness reported Orcarberrio in the company of a man closely resembling Lee Oswald.

Edited December 17, 2006 by Michael Hogan

[Ashton Gray]

Below is the updated list of safe houses in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, reflecting my understanding of the clarifications and expansions several people have contributed, plus further research I've done in compiling a map of the relevant areas that will be posted later.

I also have updated the first message in this thread to reflect the new information.

My deep gratitude to everyone who has helped bring this important issue into focus and who has contributed in any way.

Here is the list as it stands on Sunday, 17 December 2006:

• THE 1026 NORTH BECKLEY STREET SAFE HOUSE
  Jack White has supplied an address for this safe house as being 1026 North Beckley. That is exactly the same address as the rooming house in which Lee Harvey Oswald was renting a room at the time of the assassination. Jack says that the safe house is a separate building on the same property, in back of the main house, that it faces an alley, and was "only about 50 feet from Oswald's room." Jack says he was taken there and shown the place by Jim Marrs, who had been shown it by Tosh Plumlee
  Tosh Plumlee has said the following in pertinent part: "When I later learned that Oswald had been arrested as the lone assassin, I remembered having met him...in Dallas at an Oak Cliff safe house on North Beckley Street run by Alpha 66's Hernandez group, who had worked out of Miami prior to the assassination." In another place, Plumlee said: "I went to another safe house and that safe house was directly behind where Oswald had rented a room, in the alley, and I carved my initials on the draining board up there at that time and that was a gun running operation and Oswald was renting the front house. I saw him there briefly but did not talk to him."
  In another reference to this North Beckley Street Safe House, Plumlee introduces a reference to "Zang's [sic] Blvd" in association with "Hernandez" and "Alpha 66," something which caused some confusion temporarily. But N. Zang Boulevard diagonally intersects N. Beckley Street very close to 1026 N. Beckley Street, so this is being interpreted as a cross-street reference to the same safe house. [NOTE: As Zang Boulevard continues northeast from N. Beckely Street, it becomes Houston Street Viaduct, which becomes S. Houston Street, through Dealey Plaza.]
  THE COUNTRY CLUB SAFE HOUSE
  So far there is no specific known address for this safe house. Tosh Plumlee is on record saying it was "in Oak Cliff right next to the [Oak Cliff] Country Club on Bar Harbor Drive." Peter Lemkin indicates that he has seen this safe house, but he says that it was "a few streets away" from the Oak Cliff Country Club. Since the Oak Cliff Country Club appears to be on W. Red Bird Lane, the reference to Bar Harbor Drive may be the street the safe house was on, since Bar Harbor Drive appears on a map to be "several streets away" from the entrance to the Oak Cliff Country Club. An address is needed for it. Peter Lemkin suggests that Jim Marrs has an actual address. So far Jim Marrs hasn't joined the discussion on this.
  The Country Club Safe House is where Plumlee said he went first after arriving in Dallas at Dallas Executive Airport—which Plumlee uniformly calls "Redbird Airport"—and then went to again after the assassination before returning to the airport to depart. The airport that Plumlee calls "Redbird" is on W. Red Bird (two words) Lane, diagonally northwest across W. Red Bird Lane from the Oak Cliff Country Club, where S. Polk Street intersects W. Red Bird Lane.
  THE SPORTATORIUM SAFE HOUSE
  The Dallas Sportatorium was at 1000 S. Industrial Boulevard in Dallas, at the intersection of Cadiz Street on the outskirts of the Oak Cliff area. It is no longer there.
  The information on this safe house comes from Peter Lemkin, citing Plumlee, who says that it was used very shortly after the assassination by "Sergio," who had been with Tosh Plumlee in Dealey Plaza at the time of the murder. The supplied "reason" for Sergio going into this safe house just after the murder was "to change clothes." This is absurd on its face; Plumlee and Sergio went from there to the Country Club Safe House.
  Lemkin goes on to say: "The Sportatorium was yet another catagory - places not a home that could be used to hide, blend-in, find a contact, ask for help, change clothes, use as a dead drop, know that you were safe for a short time, hide a weapon, pick up money or weapon, shower, change clothes, etc. et al...even leave a dead body no questions asked, if needed."
  THE HARLANDALE SAFE HOUSE
  According to information in a County of Dallas Sheriff's Department Supplementary Investigation Report of 23 November 1963, there was a house at 3128 Harlandale Avenue in which "some Cubans had been having meetings on the week ends" for several months "and were possibly connected with the 'Freedom for Cuba Party' of which Oswald was a member."
  Plumlee makes an oblique and very unclear reference to Harlandale (which in the transcript of his interview is misspelled "Harlendale") in the context of discussing several safe houses.
  In an addendum to the Supplementary Investigation Report cited above, but dated 26 November 1963, it says: "I learned today that sometime between seven days before the president was shot and the day after he was shot these Cubans moved from this house. My informant [unnamed] stated that the subject Oswald had been to this house before."
  Thanks to Michael Hogan for supplying pointers to the available records on this place.
  THE ZOO SAFE HOUSE
  Here is everything that I have on this purported Zoo Safe House, and it is pretty vague in the way it's presented by Tosh Plumlee: "...In '62 when I came back into Dallas area, that, through the Dallas Cubans...there was a safe house here in Dallas, Oak Cliff, two of 'em. There was a small two bedroom frame type house that was located in Oak Cliff not far from the zoo where the old inner urban track used to go through. I mean there's a highline [sic—?] down through there now, at that place..."
  On maps there is the indication of a railroad track not far at all southeast of the location of the Dallas Zoo, which is at 650 R L Thornton Freeway (35E), at the Marsalis Avenue exit. It must be noted that this is just a few blocks from where Dallas Police officer J.D. Tippet was murdered.
  THE TRUE SAFE HOUSE
  There are persistent rumors of a safe house purportedly run by a stripper with the nom de nude of "Tammi True." Any information that anyone can supply on this would be greatly appreciated.
  

Ashton

[Michael Hogan]

I am also interested in one supposed safe house which according to Richard Sprague in 'The Taking of America 1,2,3' was run by stripper Tammi True but it didn't give an exact location for where this was or a source for this info as far as I can remember.

Its quite possible that Sprague got this information from Nomenclature of an Assassination Cabal, a manuscript by William Torbitt (aka David Copeland) written in 1970. In Chapter 2, Torbitt writes:

On November 22, Osborne and about ten of his riflemen were living at 3126 Harlendale in Oak Cliff, a section of Dallas. Three of his professionals were at Tammie True's house in Fort Worth and Leon Oswald, alias William Seymour, had been at the Oak Cliff address for about four weeks. Before dark on November 23, l963, Osborne, Seymour, Gonzales and the other riflemen were out of Dallas. (CH XXV, 75 et seq.)

And in Chapter 7:

However, at least seven of the Mexican professionals were in firing position in Dallas on November 22nd. Three of the Mexican assassins stayed at Tammie True's house in Fort Worth while waiting their assignment. Tammie, one of Jack Ruby's strippers, allowed them to stay at Ruby's request and they left for the return trip to Mexico on Saturday, November 23rd.

Richard Sprague in The Taking of America 1-2-3 (1976) writes:

Dallas

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.

Where the Teams Stayed

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. They were Jim Braden, Dal Tex; Fred Crisman, knoll; unidentified American (tall tramp), knoll; and a man in the TSBD Building. Osborne was in overall charge of the Dallas teams, but he did not go to Dealey Plaza. A fifth gunman, known to researchers as the umbrella man, was stationed on the street with an umbrella weapon furnished by the CIA. He was accompanied by another Cuban acting as a radio man.

Edited December 17, 2006 by Michael Hogan

[Ashton Gray]

I've been piecing together a map of the reported safe houses and some other relevant locations in and near the Oak Cliff area of Dallas.

This map at this stage is not great, but I thought it would be better to have some kind of visual reference for all these locations than none, so am uploading it, warts and all. There are a couple of scale indications down in the lower part of the map if anyone wants to plot distances between some of these points of interest:

Ashton

Edited December 17, 2006 by Ashton Gray

[Ashton Gray]

Gary Mack has sent me two private messages regarding the reported 1026 N. Beckley safe house, on the same property as the house where Oswald was renting a room at the time of the JFK and Tippet murders.

I'm on public record making it clear that I do not accept information on private lines that I cannot make public. Since the two messages from Gary are essentially a continuation of his points, I've taken the liberty of combining them here:

• Ashton,
  The "safe house" behind 1026 North Beckley was, and still is, nothing more than a separate apartment building at that address. In 1963, those rooms were rented by the owners, Mr. & Mrs. A.C. Johnson; they had something like 17 people living there and in their family home (including Oswald). Today, the Johnson's grandaughter still rents out rooms in the back building. If one chooses to believe Plumlee, Marrs and White, then they must add the Johnson family to the huge list of plotters.
  ...I've long been baffled by this silly "safe house" story. As I understand it, Plumlee and Marrs either drove by and recognized it from the road or just walked past the house. Plumlee immediatley identified it as a "safe house," but how? Why? Did it have Safe written on it? A check mark on the porch? What could possibly have told Plumlee or anyone else what the house really was? No matter. Rhetorical question, for it was just part of the Johnson's rooming house, which they had started together back in the 40s. The details are in their testimony, of course.
  Gary
  

I'll only observe that Gary omits reference by Plumlee of having been inside the reported safe house at the back of the property, of having seen Oswald inside it, of having carved his initials inside one of the buildings on that property, and of safe house in back being connected to "Hernandez" and the "Alpha 66" group, about which I'd like to see more information in this thread, since they reportedly were connected to Miami operations.

Ashton

[Michael Hogan]

In my opinion, though it seems logical that there were multiple safe houses in Dallas circa November 1963, establishing their locations may prove more chimerical than determining the location and identity of conspirators in Dealey Plaza.

The house on Harlandale is probably the exception to this. The bona fides of this location have been established to some extent by Dallas Deputy Sheriff Buddy Walthers' investigation and Larry Hancock's information on the CIA and FBI followups and the Bureau's findings on Orcarberrio. These are firm implications that lend credence to the Harlandale house being part of the intrigue.

In 1975, Peter Dale Scott wrote this about Orcarberrio:

The CIA was also linked to an anti-Castro Cuban who lived in Dallas and who allegedly looked so much like Oswald that he was mistaken for him (CD 23.4). This Cuban, Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberrio, was both a member of the DRE, a CIA front contacted by Oswald, and the Dallas president of Alpha 66, a group implicated in the ongoing plans of the CIA (and specifically, if Szulc can be believed, of Hunt) to assassinate Castro. A Treasury Agent told the Warren Commission about Rodriguez's attempts to buy arms for Alpha 66. He discovered these while investigating what he called "the right-wing group in Dallas most likely to have been associated with any effort to assassinate the President." The Warren Commission then obtained an entire file on Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberrio (CD 853) which is still withheld.

On the Spartacus website our redoubtable James Richards is quoted:

Individuals like Manuel Orcarberrio who ran the Dallas Chapter of Alpha 66 I believe was in place to provide logistical support for Felipe Vidal Santiago when he was in Dallas. There may also have been runners used from anti-Castro organizations but they would have been on a need to know. I'm sure after the assassination, many figured out that they may have played a small role and decided to make themselves scarce.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKorcarberrio.htm

[Ashton Gray]

No, The safe house was not on Oak Cliff, but the official address of the Country Club was.

Peter, at no time, anywhere, have I said that the safe house I am calling the "Country Club Safe House," or any other safe house, was "on Oak Cliff." I started this thread to clarify and focus information and reduce confusion about these safe houses and their locations, not add more confusion. Nor does it appear to me that the Country Club itself is "on Oak Cliff." Oak Cliff is the name of the area, not a street that has been put into the discussion anywhere.

I personally would be more grateful than I easily an express if you would take the time to read what I actually write, and write carefully and thoughtfully any further information so that it does not add yet another layer of confusion while I industriously am attempting to strip the confusion off of the subject. If you don't have an exact address for the "Country Club Safe House," I think we've got it approximately located enough currently so that additional "it wasn't somewhere it wasn't" comments are adding nothing at all—except egregiously more confusion.

Now attempting to work around a non-quotable response you posted to something else I had said, I had said:

• THE SPORTATORIUM SAFE HOUSE
  The Dallas Sportatorium was at 1000 S. Industrial Boulevard in Dallas, at the intersection of Cadiz Street on the outskirts of the Oak Cliff area. It is no longer there.
  The information on this safe house comes from Peter Lemkin, citing Plumlee, who says that it was used very shortly after the assassination by "Sergio," who had been with Tosh Plumlee in Dealey Plaza at the time of the murder. The supplied "reason" for Sergio going into this safe house just after the murder was "to change clothes." This is absurd on its face; Plumlee and Sergio went from there to the Country Club Safe House.
  

And you responded:

I'm not totally sure it is absurd that he went into the Sportatorium, whether or not to change clothes...

Again, I never said at all that it was "absurd that he went into the Sportatorium," so completely unnecessary dunnage is being added to this thread. I said: The supplied "reason" for Sergio going into this safe house just after the murder was "to change clothes." This is absurd on its face... ."

That's my opinion: that the SUPPLIED REASON is absurd on its face. And I hereby retract the sideline comment completely, so I pray there will be no more space or time wasted on it.

Ashton

[Ashton Gray]

I was trying to clarify the position of the safe house. You had said it could be on Oak Cliff Blvd.

No, I did not say that. I've said absolutely nothing at all anywhere about any "Oak Cliff Blvd." Please quit misrepresenting me. Please quit trying to fix something that ain't broken.

Having taken a sufficient walk, I've now edited this section of this post to attempt to make it more civilized. I still don't feel very civilized about it.

To recap:

The country club at issue is named THE OAK CLIFF COUNTRY CLUB. That says nothing at all about any "Oak Cliff Blvd."

An entrance to the OAK CLIFF COUNTRY CLUB appears on the map to be on RED BIRD LANE. That also has nothing at all to do with any "Oak Cliff Blvd."

A street that has been associated in the record with both the OAK CLIFF COUNTRY CLUB and the safe house near the country club (which I arbitrarily have named "the Country Club Safe House") is BAR HARBOR DRIVE. That also has nothing whatsoever to do with any "Oak Cliff Blvd."

That's why I wish to God you'd quit "correcting" me on something I've never said at all, while simultaneously confusing the hell out of what I've invested a good deal of work in trying to UNconfuse.

I also was reacting to what seems like put downs...are you aware you sometimes come across that way even if unintended.

Yes, I know: I'm a royal ass. It's all been thoroughly documented and agreed upon, and I understand is being cobbled as we speak into a bipartisan bill for Congress, and may even have a chance as an amendment to the Constitution. And we've all got our crosses to bear. Can we get back to actual correct locations of the safe houses, and wipe all the personal stuff off on the door mat outside? Please?

I genuinely appreciate what you've contributed to this effort. I genuinely appreciate the risks you've taken on your own initiative to unearth this information. But this thread is no place for any of us to get into a pissing contest about who's lost or risked what. It's irrelevant. We're each here by our own hand, and we're here because we care enough to have risked or lost whatever we each have thought it worth. And I salute you for it. And all of us owe a salute to the roster of the dead who didn't make it this far for everything of value they have left in the record. I don't know: maybe that's why I'm here trying to make some advance while I'm able.

Ashton

Edited December 17, 2006 by Ashton Gray

[Guest John Gillespie]

This topic has been started specifically to list and identify as clearly and accurately as possible "safe houses" of intelligence agencies that were operational in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas during and around the time frame of the Kennedy assassination. This is not a catch-all topic for "Buildings and Architecture of Dallas That Might Have a Suspect Cachet." Please make contributions that are on-topic and informative.

EDIT NOTE: I will continue to edit with updates the list of safe houses immediately below to keep it as current as possible when new information is supplied in this thread. I'm am preserving all versions of the list, but I see no point in perpetuating here in the first message some of the early confusions that existed when this topic was started. My deep appreciation to all who have contributed to sorting this out. —Ashton

Here is the current list:

• THE 1026 NORTH BECKLEY STREET SAFE HOUSE
  Jack White has supplied an address for this safe house as being 1026 North Beckley. That is exactly the same address as the rooming house in which Lee Harvey Oswald was renting a room at the time of the assassination. Jack says that the safe house is a separate building on the same property, in back of the main house, that it faces an alley, and was "only about 50 feet from Oswald's room." Jack says he was taken there and shown the place by Jim Marrs, who had been shown it by Tosh Plumlee
  Tosh Plumlee has said the following in pertinent part: "When I later learned that Oswald had been arrested as the lone assassin, I remembered having met him...in Dallas at an Oak Cliff safe house on North Beckley Street run by Alpha 66's Hernandez group, who had worked out of Miami prior to the assassination." In another place, Plumlee said: "I went to another safe house and that safe house was directly behind where Oswald had rented a room, in the alley, and I carved my initials on the draining board up there at that time and that was a gun running operation and Oswald was renting the front house. I saw him there briefly but did not talk to him."
  In another reference to this North Beckley Street Safe House, Plumlee introduces a reference to "Zang's [sic] Blvd" in association with "Hernandez" and "Alpha 66," something which caused some confusion temporarily. But N. Zang Boulevard diagonally intersects N. Beckley Street very close to 1026 N. Beckley Street, so this is being interpreted as a cross-street reference to the same safe house. [NOTE: As Zang Boulevard continues northeast from N. Beckely Street, it becomes Houston Street Viaduct, which becomes S. Houston Street, through Dealey Plaza.]
  THE COUNTRY CLUB SAFE HOUSE
  So far there is no specific known address for this safe house. Tosh Plumlee is on record saying it was "in Oak Cliff right next to the [Oak Cliff] Country Club on Bar Harbor Drive." Peter Lemkin indicates that he has seen this safe house, but he says that it was "a few streets away" from the Oak Cliff Country Club. Since the Oak Cliff Country Club appears to be on W. Red Bird Lane, the reference to Bar Harbor Drive may be the street the safe house was on, since Bar Harbor Drive appears on a map to be "several streets away" from the entrance to the Oak Cliff Country Club. An address is needed for it. Peter Lemkin suggests that Jim Marrs has an actual address. So far Jim Marrs hasn't joined the discussion on this.
  The Country Club Safe House is where Plumlee said he went first after arriving in Dallas at Dallas Executive Airport—which Plumlee uniformly calls "Redbird Airport"—and then went to again after the assassination before returning to the airport to depart. The airport that Plumlee calls "Redbird" is on W. Red Bird (two words) Lane, diagonally northwest across W. Red Bird Lane from the Oak Cliff Country Club, where S. Polk Street intersects W. Red Bird Lane.
  THE SPORTATORIUM SAFE HOUSE
  The Dallas Sportatorium was at 1000 S. Industrial Boulevard in Dallas, at the intersection of Cadiz Street on the outskirts of the Oak Cliff area. It is no longer there.
  The information on this safe house comes from Peter Lemkin, citing Plumlee, who says that it was used very shortly after the assassination by "Sergio," who had been with Tosh Plumlee in Dealey Plaza at the time of the murder. The supplied "reason" for Sergio going into this safe house just after the murder was "to change clothes." This is absurd on its face; Plumlee and Sergio went from there to the Country Club Safe House.
  Lemkin goes on to say: "The Sportatorium was yet another catagory - places not a home that could be used to hide, blend-in, find a contact, ask for help, change clothes, use as a dead drop, know that you were safe for a short time, hide a weapon, pick up money or weapon, shower, change clothes, etc. et al...even leave a dead body no questions asked, if needed."
  THE HARLANDALE SAFE HOUSE
  According to information in a County of Dallas Sheriff's Department Supplementary Investigation Report of 23 November 1963, there was a house at 3128 Harlandale Avenue in which "some Cubans had been having meetings on the week ends" for several months "and were possibly connected with the 'Freedom for Cuba Party' of which Oswald was a member."
  Plumlee makes an oblique and very unclear reference to Harlandale (which in the transcript of his interview is misspelled "Harlendale") in the context of discussing several safe houses.
  In an addendum to the Supplementary Investigation Report cited above, but dated 26 November 1963, it says: "I learned today that sometime between seven days before the president was shot and the day after he was shot these Cubans moved from this house. My informant [unnamed] stated that the subject Oswald had been to this house before."
  Thanks to Michael Hogan for supplying pointers to the available records on this place.
  THE ZOO SAFE HOUSE
  Here is everything that I have on this purported Zoo Safe House, and it is pretty vague in the way it's presented by Tosh Plumlee: "...In '62 when I came back into Dallas area, that, through the Dallas Cubans...there was a safe house here in Dallas, Oak Cliff, two of 'em. There was a small two bedroom frame type house that was located in Oak Cliff not far from the zoo where the old inner urban track used to go through. I mean there's a highline [sic—?] down through there now, at that place..."
  On maps there is the indication of a railroad track not far at all southeast of the location of the Dallas Zoo, which is at 650 R L Thornton Freeway (35E), at the Marsalis Avenue exit. It must be noted that this is just a few blocks from where Dallas Police officer J.D. Tippet was murdered.
  THE TRUE SAFE HOUSE
  There are persistent rumors of a safe house purportedly run by a stripper with the nom de nude of "Tammi True." Any information that anyone can supply on this would be greatly appreciated.
  

That's all I can determine with any relative certainty so far.

My hope is that others will come along to clarify and amplify, not further muddy the waters on these safe houses.

Ashton Gray

___________________________________

Ash,

I'm leaning towards not making this kind of hollow, non-specific entry but what the heck. I have read a quote from a Dallas PD source that the 1026 N. Beckley site was a Dallas PD Safehouse. Also -again, a non-substantive declaration - it was quoted on this site by an astute member whose identity is unrecalled that some of the Dallas Officers belonged to Intelligence Reserve Units (would probably be the 112th MI Bn).

I will try to dig for details, but the kettle's on the boil and I'm so easily called away.

Happy Holiday Weekend,

Yours Truly,

JAG

[Robert Howard]

POWELL, NANCY MONNELL (AKA TAMMI TRUE)

Sources: Warren Report, p. 325; WC Vol 15, p. 404; WC Vol 19, pp. 44, 75; WC Vol 26, p. 483; CE 2984; CD 1150, p. 3; CD 1452; HSCA Vol 9, pp. 191, 239, 278, 280, 287, 980, 1082-1083, 1085-1087, 1090, 1092, 1098-1099

Mary's

Comments: "Stripper" at Carousel Club. "Girl friend" of Ralph Paul. Grandmother was Della Jones. In 1977 she is Nancy Staley, 39 yrs old, lives in McKinney, TX, and works in Dallas.

The Clements Report page 302 quoting Thomas Stewart Palmer [branch Manager AGVA] mentions that a short squatty man named Ralph Paul "shacks up" with Tammi True, Tammi True is also mentioned on page 328 - "but who, as of November 25, 1963 will be appearing at the Kings Club in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma." This is, according to Carl "Pappy" Dolsen.

Robert H. Jeffrey said to his knowledge no employees of the store were acquainted with Ruby

Nancy Monnell Powell was deposed by the Warren Commission on July 25, 1964

Her address, as provided to the WC on the above date was 1217 Clarence in Fort Worth. The

1217 Clarence Street address was Tammi True's address on the day of the JFK assassination

Portions of her rather lengthy testimony

Mr. GRIFFIN. New Year's Eve of 1963 you said you were working for him

Mrs. POWELL. I lived over here for a while in the same apartment building he did.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you live on Ewing Street?

Mrs. POWELL. Yes.

Mr. GRIFFIN. 223 South Ewing Street?

Mrs. POWELL. Yes.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Jack didn't move there until about the first of the year?

Mrs. POWELL. We moved in at the same time.

Mr. GRIFFIN. You did?

Mrs. POWELL. Yes.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Were you living with him?

Mrs. POWELL. No. I wasn't living with him, the ugly thing. I had an apartment. I presume you have seen his apartment and everything and know about it. My apartment was right here.........

Mr. GRIFFIN. You moved into that apartment sometime the early part of 1963, and then when you went to Oklahoma City, did you move out of the apartment?

Mrs. POWELL. You see, I quit the last time. It was while I was living in the apartment building. That is when I quit, and I didn't come back. No, I came back one more time. and I left just 2 days before this happened, from the Carousel, then I was gone, and I came back after.

Mr. GRIFFIN. When you quit Jack on November 20, that is 2 days before the President was shot--

That was the last time I quit.

Mr. GRIFFIN. At that time, were you living at South Ewing?

Mrs. POWELL. No. I quit before then. I was living on South Ewing, and there was a girl working up there that is married then to the emcee, and they were always, that doesn't work out in show business too well.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Wally Weston?

Mrs. POWELL. And his wife, Shari.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Was she working there as a stripper at Jack's place?

Mrs. POWELL. Yes. There is always a lot of confusion when they were around. They were kind of tough. Really, they are. They think they are great stars, and they cause trouble for other people, and I don't need it, because I can work, and I didn't feel like I could take it.

Mr. GRIFFIN. You left Jack around March of 1963?

Mrs. POWELL. Wait a minute. I know I went to Tulsa, and I worked the last 2 weeks in March. I stayed in Tulsa in March, and I worked 2 weeks in Kansas City, and came back, and stayed in Tulsa, until June 2, and I came home.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Then did you come back and work for Jack?

Mrs. POWELL. Wait, don't rush me. That was last summer. How did I get up way past the assassination? It was last summer. Well, I worked for Jack up until 2 days before the President was assassinated. I closed on Tuesday. It happened on Thursday, didn't it?

Mr. GRIFFIN. Friday.

Mrs. POWELL. Then I closed on Wednesday, because it was just 2 days before the President was assassinated.

Mr. GRIFFIN. How did you happen to quit?

Mrs. POWELL. I got mad at him. Let me see if I can remember what it was about now. I don't even remember--something. He always had something going, you know; but I got mad and quit for some reason.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you give him any advance notice?

Mrs. POWELL. Oh, yes; I gave him notice.

Mr. GRIFFIN. How much notice?

Mrs. POWELL. A week's notice. Under union contract rules, you have to give the employer a week's notice, and he has to give you 2 weeks, if you are booked indefinitely like I was.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Are these the AGVA rules?

Mrs. POWELL Yes.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Where were you living at that time?

Mrs. POWELL. I was living in Fort Worth then.

[Thomas Graves]

Hi Francesca. Thanks.

On the Harlendale item, do you have a particular source for it?

....Unless, of course, you have some other source for a Harlendale Street safe house. Then we're in bid'ness.

Another one of those anecdotal accounts:

http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk...Vol19_0276b.htm

[...]

In his excellent book Someone Would Have Talked, Larry Hancock writes:

Author Eric Tagg reports in Brush with Destiny, an excellent manuscript on the life of Buddy Walthers, Dallas County Deputy Sheriff, that Walthers was contacted on the evening of November 22 by his mother-in-law. She lived next door to the house on Harlandale that had started to receive a lot of mysterious late night visitors in October and November. She had become suspicious of her new neighbors who had moved in only 2-3 months before, and who held frequent meetings lasting long into the nights. Apparently, she felt that these Cubans might somehow be connected to Lee Oswald; in fact she told Walthers that she had seen someone looking very much like Oswald going into the house.

Walthers continued his own investigation of the house and its occupants. He found that one occupant was Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberrio, and that Frank Ellsworth of the ATF was indeed monitoring Orcarberrio's armaments buying efforts at the time of the assassination. Walthers concluded his investigation and on November 26, he submitted a follow-up report.

There are no records indicating the Secret Service ever pursued Walther's report. The CIA did, but was confused (it would seem) by a misspelling of Harlandale in Walther's original report and dropped the inquiry on the grounds that no such address existed. The FBI managed to locate the address but did no more than simply confirm that the Cubans and Orcarberrio had been there and departed.

An examination of an FBI follow-up on Walther's report is even more revealing. It seems that the FBI had a source within Alpha 66 in Dallas who reported to it that Oswald was not associated with Alpha 66 in any way and had never been to the house on Harlandale. The same report notes that the source later moved to Puerto Rico after the assassination. Since we know the Rodriguez Orcarberrio made such a move, it is possible that the FBI's source clearing the house on Harlandale may have been one of the persons reported as being in contact with Oswald. The FBI report made no mention of the fact that in 1964 the Secret Service listed Orcarberrio as a potential Presidential threat, nor does it mention yet another, separate FBI report in which a witness reported Orcarberrio in the company of a man closely resembling Lee Oswald.

Michael and Larry,

I have determined that the confidential informant for Deputy Sheriff "Buddy" Walthers on the pre-assassination goings-on at the 3126 Harlandale "safe house," including the assertion that Oswald had been at that house, was Buddy's mother-in-law, Lillie Robertson.

http://www.history-m...Vol19_0276b.htm

Buddy mistakenly called it "3128 Harlendale." There is no 3128 Harlandale, and there is no street in Dallas called Harlendale. The correct address for the house he was talking about is 3126 Harlandale.

On May 25, 1964, Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberrio told the FBI that the Dallas (Alpha-66) meetings took place at 3126 Hollandale [sic], which Orcaberrio said was the residence of one Jorge Salazar. http://www.maryferre...p;relPageId=222

FWIW, there is a Hollandale Lane in a northern suburb of Dallas, but its numbers end in the 3000 block. In other words, there is no "3126 Hollandale," but there is a 3126 Harlandale...

3126 Harlandale Avenue, Photo and Map: https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&layer=c&z=17&iwloc=A&sll=32.708524,-96.807458&cbp=13,63.5,0,0,0&cbll=32.708465,-96.807597&q=%223126+harlandale%22+dallas&ei=ubEOUp2zE8TAyAGx_YBQ&ved=0CC4QxB0wAA

The house Buddy's mother-in-law lived in is at 3130 Harlandale Avenue, immediately adjacent to the "safe house."

Knowing that "Dorothy" was the first name of Buddy's wife, and that she remarried and became "Dorothy Mangham" after he was murdered in 1969, I tried to find a wedding announcement so I could determine what Buddy's mother-in-law's name was. I had no luck using Buddy's name "Eddy Raymond Walthers," but hit pay dirt when I googled "E. R. Walthers" and 'Dorothy," together. http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/newspapers/?lname=walthers&type=marriage_engagement

Then I went to the 1940 Census and saw that Dorothy Robertson was 15 years old and living with her parents, Vester (or "Victor") and Lillie Robinson, and Dorothy's two brothers at 3130 Harlandale in 1940. Dorothy's mother, Lillie Robinson, was 39 years old in 1940. They had been living in the same house in 1935, and it's logical to assume that Lillie Robinson, Buddy's mother-in-law, was still living there in 1963. Perhaps someone can check a 1962 or 1963 Dallas phone book for Robinson on Harlandale?

http://interactive.ancestry.com/2442/m-t0627-04180-00761/158942981?backurl=&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnRecord

For me, the fact that Buddy's Walthers' mother-in-law was living right next to the Harlandale safe house lends credence to Buddy's statements regarding what was going on there before (and perhaps even one day after) the assassination.

It appears that deputy sheriff Eddy Raymond "Buddy" Walthers had a good informant living right next to the safe house on Harlandale. His mother-in-law!

--Tommy

By the way, it looks like Buddy's widow, Dorothy Mangham, is still living in Dallas and is now 88 years old.

Edited August 17, 2013 by Thomas Graves