Cover of
Portrait of An Intelligence Officer, published in Europe.
The Life and Times
BRANDY’S
BAND OF BROS AT DEALEY PLAZA
Of all
the military Colonels who come into play on the Dealey Plaza chess board and
sand table, one stands out more than any other – Lt. Colonel Frank “Brandy”
Brandstetter, not because he was any kind of a mastermind of the Dealey Plaza
operation, or even there at the time, but because he was egotistical enough to
brag about his exploits and have two biographies written about him that
conclusively document his personal association with many of the principle players
in the Dealey Plaza operation.
Brandstetter's associations and connections give us a good indication of the size and extent of the intelligence network that was conducting operations at the time of the assassination, especially at Dealey Plaza.
Professor
Peter Dale Scott (PDS), in his 2010 Dallas COPA presentation, mentioned the
pivotal role played by Jack Crichton, and Crichton’s association with Lt. Col.
Frank Brandstetter.
As I
recall transcribing a tape of PDS’s talk and obtained the footnotes from him, I
had already read one of the two Brandstetter biographies, recognized his
significance in the overall scheme of things, and took particular notice of all
the major and minor players that Brandy knew and worked with in the course of
his employment with US Army Intelligence (ACSI), Hilton Hotels and other
companies.
Most significant
was his HUMIT – human intelligence support to a seemingly obscure branch of the
the US military known by its acronomyn as ACSI – Assistant Chief of Staff
Intelligence – for the US Army Reserves.
By 1960
there were three main types of intelligence sources – the traditional HUMIT –
human intelligence networks that had not changed since the days of Sun Tzu’s
Art of War.
Then
there was SIGNIT intelligence – or communications intelligence, such as phone,
wiretaps and secret tape recordings of conversations, that included CRYPTO
intelligence or communications that are encrypted, now called COMINT - Communications Intell, and ELINT - Electronics Intelligence.
One of
the main intelligence sources to come of age in the 1960s was photo, especially
aerial intelligence, that began during WWII, now called GEOINT - Geospatial intelligence gathered from satellites and aerial photos, and IMINT - Imagery intelligence.
From Our Man in Acapulco - (University of North Texas Press, 1999) p. 129:
“...He (Brandy) met Lieutenant Colonel William B. Rose, chief
of the Army Intelligence Reserve Branch Office
of the Assistant Chief of Staff,
Intelligence (ACSI) at the Pentagon. The contact would later prove momentous, changing the course of
Brandy’s military career. Despite Brandy’s career changes in his private life,
he meant to continue his service to army intelligence. He vowed he would not
disappear into a reserve control group without duties. Over the next year Brandy, at age forty-six, began a series of
adventures which allowed him to pursue both his personal career in the resort
hotel business and his military career as an intelligence officer
which he had kept alive through the doldrums of the 1950s. Interestingly,
he accumulated more U.S. Army Reserve credit points than any other officer in
the Reserve.”
Chapter 11 - Cuba Si!
“When Brandy was pursuing legal action
in Dallas to recover his share of proceeds from (Havana casino) Sans Souci, he had obtained a copy of
Conrad Hilton’s life story, Be My Guest.”
[BK
Notes: By the time I read Conrad Hilton’s autobiographical paperback I had stayed
at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago, just across from Grant Park, where the
riots occurred at the August 1968 Democratic National Convention, where I was
tear gassed by the Illinois National Guard (Army Reserves), busted by the
Chicago Cops and refused to get involved in Presidential politics since then. In
reading the auto biography of the founder of the Hilton Hotel chain, I thought
it was inspirational that he carried a photo in his wallet of the famed
Waldorf-Historia Hotel in New York City, and was determined to one day own it,
and that he did.]
Our Man in Acapulco continued: “(Brandy) thought
about the new concepts in Hilton’s hotel work, especially the idea of an
international chain of hotels. Brandy considered that there might be a match
between his own background in languages, his rich experiences, and the needs of
the expanding chain. He checked the business directories and discovered that the president of Hilton International was
John Hauser. Hilton International had set up a hotel in Puerto Rico as
their first, semi-overseas operation, and then had plans to expand in Latin
America, Europe, and the Near East…In late 1957 Brandy went to New York to meet
Hauser. The two men immediately liked one another. Hauser, a marine combat officer in the war, suggested that Brandy might
appreciate an appointment as manager for a planned hotel in West Berlin, and after a lunch at the Waldorf-Astoria in
New York, they shook hands on the offer. Brandy was aboard with the Hilton
organization. Suddenly, Hauser called him in. The hotel in Germany was
still under construction. Hauser told
Brandy to take a plane to Havana that night. There were problems getting the
hotel there into operation and they needed a trouble-shooter….Brandy flew
to Havana that evening, 13 February 1958, to undertake the position.”
Meanwhile, Brandy's psychologically sick wife was a patient at the Timberlawn psychological facility in Dallas.
“Barbara, who was under medical
care at Timberlawn in Dallas,
could visit him periodically with a nurse in attendance….”
[BK
Notes: Timberlawn is the Dallas psychiatric hospital where Dr. Colin A. Ross
worked when he was affiliated with the CIA’s MKULTRA mind control experiments
creating duel personalities, ala Candy Jones, and as exhibited in this article
on the link between the CIA and multiple personality disorder.
When
Brandy got to Havana he found that the, “Local ownership (of the Havana Hilton)
was in the hands of the Cuban Culinary Workers’ Union. The union’s leader Sr.
Aguille, had the union’s own man, Jose Menendez, appointed as general manger…As
Brandy investigated both the delayed delivery of materials and work, he
discovered a system of bribes reaching ten or fifteen percent over cost had
been required for every detail of construction…The hotel was a mess….Hilton had
sent a project manager, Peter DeTulio,
to oversee completion of the work, but DeTulio was finding one frustration
after another….Conrad Hilton had recruited the noted gambling expert and author, John Scarne,
to serve as the corporation’s representative for inspecting casinos associated
with the various hotels in the chain….In effect, Scarne’s job was to identify staff members who were stealing, either from
the house or the customers….Scarene
had served in the Navy during World War II,….quietly pointed out that the
gambling operation, like most of the major casinos in Havana, was conducted
through contract by a group with mob connections. He identified one or two
famous member of the American underworld who would stop by the casino
occasionally, including Meyer Lansky….The
party of Hilton executives, including Conrad
Hilton himself, John Hauser, Charles Bell, who was in charge of food
and beverage for Hilton International, and Arthur
Elminger,….”
“…The rumors of Fidel Castro’s forces raiding
against the repressive regime of Cuban
dictator Fulgencio Batista, had apparently scared off the tourists, even
though the attacks were concentrated several hundred miles away on the eastern
end of the island in Camaguey and Oriente provences ….Manuel Ray, the chief engineer (of the Havana Hilton),…had struck
Brandy as a thoughtful type with little to say, warned there would be some
serious consequences as a result of the layoffs….”
“The next morning, 9 April 1958,….Four Cuban security police officers strode
into the room….The security forces “Blue Buick” had grown famous under the
tough regime of Batista, those arrested for questioning and taken away in it
usually never came back. Inside the car, he received a once-over. A burley
security police type on each side squeezed him in with his arms and legs locked
back; each delivered tight blows to his stomach, kidneys, face. Saying nothing,
they continued to beat him as the big car drove slowly through the busy streets
of Havana to the headquarters of Police District Nine……Clearing his head,
Brandy read the nameplate: Major
Ventura. This man was notorious, the so-called “Butcher of Havana.” ….Esteban
Ventura….”
“The Hilton organization, however, could not spare Brandy
for a three-week reserve duty. After some difficulty, Brandy was later able to
put in two weeks at the Summer Fourth
Army Area Intelligence School in Texas. When he returned to Havana, he
wrote to Colonel William Rose at the
Pentagon, in the Office of Assistant Chief of Staff-Intelligence (ACSI).
Brandy reminded him that he would need a new billet in 1959, and sent along a
collection of documents amplifying his military background. Rose remembered Brandy very well and
responded within a week that he was glad to hear Brandy was 'back in Havana,
where [he could] take good care of our interests.' Rose suggested that Brandy contact Colonel Sam Kail, the U.S. Army
military attaché at the American Embassy in Havana. Brandy followed up,
conferring with Kail regularly about the situation in Havana.”
[BK
Notes: Sam Kail was a major contact for David Atlee Phillips at the same time
as he was running a public relations firm in Havana and recruiting agents and
operatives like Antonio Veciana. Kail would later return to USA and with
Dorothe Matlack, also a contact for Brandy, Kail and Matlack would meet with
George deMohrenschildts in DC before he went to Haiti to work for Papa Doc.]
“Brandy began to learn more about the political situation by listening to
discussions and gathering information from ordinary people, from journalists
like Jules DuBois,…..When someone pointed out that “the Communists” were in the
hills, Manuel Ray corrected him….The peasant soldiers wore crucifixes and many
were devout Catholics, not Communists at all. In the summer, Brandy sent a
confidential report via Colone Kail to Army G-2, suggesting an overthrow of the
Batista regime by Castro’s forces would soon take place….As an army man, Brandy
found the all-knowing tone from State and CIA frustrating, even wrong-headed…”
p. 143:
“….One noon, Brandy had lunch with
Colonel Sam Kail, the military attaché from the U.S. Embssy. Kail and
Brandy worked out tentative plans for an evacuation of American tourists if the
revolution reached Havana. After lunch, they were irritated to find themselves
stuck in the elevator between floors….The Hilton name, Brandy feared, was
attracting more and more anti-American attention….”
“…Soon however, he picked up a rumor from his grapevine that Manuel Ray was a
Castro supporter. It seemed to fit, the more he thought about it…A few days
after the revolution was completed, Manual
Ray, former chief engineer of the Havana Hilton, received a cabinet appointment
by the new Castro-led government minister of public works. Ray had apparently
been in charge of all the sabotage in Havana in the summer of 1958.”
“Listening to reporters and his other sources on the grapevine, Brandy heard
another, even more frightening rumor. The word was circulating that when the
Castro people took over Havana, they would burn the Havana Hilton to the
ground. He decided to establish liaison
with the Castro forces, and planned to carry a letter through the liens to
Castro, inviting him to make the Hilton his headquarters, when and if his
troops arrived in Havana. Young Fred Lederer found Brandy in his office,
preparing the letter….”
“…The Conrad Hilton Suite could be the
CP – Command Post – for Castro himself. Brandy visualized the communication
lines, internal security, and defense perimeter. He had experience setting up
and staffing CPs in World War II, so it would be natural. If Castro came to the
city, the invitation would save the hotel….Lederere
came from a Prussian military family, was bright and had guts….Lederer’s
attempt to get through to Castro occurred on Christmas Eve, 1958…Jules DuBois,
the Chicago Tribune reporter who had written favorably of Castro, had contacts
in the revolutionary camp….”
“…Batista had fled to the Dominican Republic….Years later, after reading CIA officer David Atlee Phillips’s account
of the same evening in The Night Watch,
Brandy noted that Phillips claimed to have been the first to hear of the
evacuation of Batista at 4:00 A.M. The next time Brandy saw his friend
Phillips, he told him had the jump on him! He knew the end was coming at 8:00
P.M. the night before, beating the CIA by eight hours. Phillips and Brandy had a good laugh over the issue.”
“…As the (New Year’s Eve) party wound down,….Brandy issued an order that the
guests should not check out – he had in mind the evacuation plans developed
earlier with Colonel Kail at the American Embassy, as well as the plans for
Castro forces to stay in the hotel….”
“…Briefly,
Brandy had an exchange with Manuel Ray, who confirmed that the mob intended to
burn the hotel. Brandy handed him his jacket and went down to the lobby. From
the mezzanine, a few guests observed
what happened next. Among them was Philippe de Vosjoli, head of French
Intelligence – the SDECE (Service de Documentation Exterieure dt de
Contre-espionage) – in Cuba, Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and
Mexico. Unknown to Brandy, de Vosjoli was staying at the hotel with his
wife. He later recorded the events in his autobiography, Lamia, ‘dedicated to
Brandy, wherein he recorded seeing ‘a physically fit man in a white shirt with
short sleeves…calmly blocking the path of an armed, angry mob.’”
“Brandy
met the mob and stood his ground at the entrance to the hotel lobby, explaining
the hotel was not American property. It belonged to the Cuban people – to the
Cuban Culinary Workers’ Union. Hilton managed it, but if they burned down the
hotel they would be destroying the Cuban workers’ savings, not American
property. The crowd waved machetes, pistols and rifles…..Gradually, the crowd
began to quiet, then broke into groups and argued….The standoff lasted fifteen
minutes, then the rioters moved on…Meanwhile, the American Embassy evacuation
plans that Colonel Kail and Barndy had worked out months before was quietly
taking effect….”
“The barbudos, Brandy remembered, tended to be well behaved by comparison to
some of the tourists…”
“Philippe de Vosjoli, who had observed Brandy confronting the rioters in the
lobby of the hotel on 1 January, approached Brandy and introduced himself.
Brandy immediately liked the straightforward, pro-American, and strongly
anti-Communist French agent. De Vosjoli explained his dilemma. He believed a
leak somewhere in the French security arrangements might cause the Communists
among Castro’s forces to target him personally as a potential enemy. He wanted
to evacuate without attracting notice. Brandy believed he should do a favor for
a fellow Allied officer, especially one in the same line of business.”
“He included Philippe de Vosjoli and his wife in the group of American
tourists…De Vosjoli would remember Brandy’s kindness in later years, and would
share with him many confidences and insights into the problems of Communist
penetration of security agencies in the Western democracies. The friendship
later grew, based as it was on mutual respect and the memory of the shared
risks during the Castro takeover.”
“…Offshore,
by pre-arrangement through Colonel Kail,
three U.S. Navy destroyers cruised in international waters, to provide
protection and an escort for the ferry across the ninety miles to Key West and
the United States….Among the New Year’s
party-goers who wrote in appreciation were Dr. Curtice Rosser of Dallas, who
was Brandy’s friend and Barbara’s personal physician, Ernest Dumler, an
industrialist from Pittsburgh; John Thompson, a military reporter for the
Chicago Tribune, and Frank Sherman, an attorney from New York City….”
“Meanwhile the local general manager of the hotel, Jose Menendez, went into
hiding…For the first week of the revolution, Castro remained in Oriente
province, finally moving into Havana on 8 January 1959 as order was restored by
his troops. The motorcade proceeded directly to the Hilton. As Castro and his
entourage entered, Brandy introduced himself and explained that the Conrad
Hilton Suite was at the disposal of the Castro party. Brandy had taken the
trouble to freshen up the suite with flowers and stock the refrigerator with
soft drinks and beer. Castro and his group took a quick look, then declined to
stay because the facilities were ‘too plush.’ However, a few days later the
group returned, and Castro and his senior officers moved into the suite.”
“Brandy was summoned by Castro’s security and bodyguards to taste the first
meals brought by room service, to ensure against poisoning. Brandy did so,
and then arranged for Fred Lederer, the food and beverage manager, to do the
tasting…”
“For a few weeks the Conrad
Hilton Suite was converted, just as Bandy had planned, into the Castro forces’
command post….”
“Frank suggested to Colonel Kail at the embassy that it would be a good idea to
arrange for an American news organization to conduct a full-scale television
interview with Castro, so that more could be learned about him. Although full
assessments of the Castro forces were available, little was known about Castro,
the man. Brandy also suggested that the
ACSI approach General David Sarnoff, U.S. Army, ret., and Chairman of
the Board of RCA (which controlled NBC), as someone who could be trusted.
Sarnoff had served as General Eisenhower’s communications officer during the
Second World War. Sarnoff recommended that Jack Paar, host of the “Tonight
Show,” conduct the interview.”
“In Cuba, Colonel Kail worked with Brandy to arrange the event…The questions,
although innocuous, were exactly the sort needed by the U.S. Army to build a
more complete picture of the human side of the new leader of Cuba. Brandy
thought back to his days in the Field Intelligence Detachment,….. served as
interpreter during the interview.”
Chapter 13 Crown, Semenenko and Hilton p. 156
“Brandy served the 1959 session of his
annual active duty at the Pentagon in the Office of the Army Chief of Staff,
Intelligence (ACSI), working under his first ACSI “Big Brother,” Colonel Bob
Roth, in the Collection Division….This duty marked his change from Mobilization Reserve to a career over
the next eighteen years of working directly for ACSI, sometimes on active
duty, and at other times, after retirement, on a strictly unpaid and voluntary
basis.”
“Over that time, the officer to whom he reported at ACSI would change almost
every two years. In the ACSI office, continuity was provided by Mrs. Dorothe K. Matlack, a long-time
civil servant and chief of the
Exploitation Section of the Assistant Chief of Staff-Intelligence (ACSI-CX).
Dorothe (pronounced Dorothy) personally knew Brandy and other officers who
worked to supply a continuing stream of good
quality “humanit,” or human intelligence. Brandy could continue
the work of “eyes and ears” that he had begun under Ridgway, knowing that his
“Big Brother” in Washington,
whoever he would be over time, would receive his reports and that they would at
least be considered and reviewed properly. Brandy’s
standard operating procedure was to contact only one officer, his “Big Brother”
from ACSI, thus protecting himself from possible exposure…”
“After departing the Pentagon, he visited the executive offices of Hilton
International in New York City. He learned that John Hauser was no longer president of Hilton International, the
position having been filled by Robert J.
Caverly, a new executive…”
“He moved back to Dallas to be near Barbara, who was in a sanitarium there. He
retained both his status as a Hilton manager on leave of absence and his status
as a reserve lieutenant colonel, with annual active duty to be served at the
Army Chief of Staff Intelligence at the Pentagon….”
“Brandy now settled into work as vice president and part owner of an
auto-leasing business, Continental Leasing. The company,…operated by Dallas
businessman Scott Walker, had been established in 1957. The headquarters of the
firm later moved to Shreveport, Louisiana….”
“During this time, Brandy was developing a private plan that he hoped would
affect the Cuban situation. He worked on a proposal to acquire used engines
from the U.S. Army, particularly large engines from decommissioned army tanks,
refurbish and box them, and then sell them in Cuba in 1959….”
“Meanwhile, he kept in touch with Colonel
William Rose at the Pentagon office
of the Assistant Chief of Staff-Intelligence. Rose arranged for Brandy to
be assigned for training on weekend duties to the 488th Strategic Intelligence
Team in Dallas. He contributed to a study of the capability of the Soviet
oil fields, working with oil and mining
engineer Colonel Jack Crichton, MI and U.S. Army, ret., who was
later to explore the oil and gas reserves in the former Soviet Union during the
1990s….”
“That summer, Brandy finally received a phone call from Hilton headquarters.
Effective 1 July 1959, there was an opening in Mexico, to take over as manager
of a Hilton-supervised property in Acapulco, the Las Brisas….Brandy noticed one
employee on the records – Ron Urbanek…during
World War II he had worked on the Red Ball Express, the truck line that
supplied ammunition and other supplies in 1944 and 1945 from the channel ports
to Patton on the front in a massive operation…”
p. 289: “….After less than an hour, Bronfman convinced Brandy to assume the
general manager’s position at Seagrams de Mexico for a year and a half to two
years….Brandy met with Harold Fieldsteel, executive vice president for Finance
and Administration of JES; with F. Shaker, vice president, International
Administration and James E. McDonough, who was president of Seagrams Overseas Sales
Company (SOSCO)….”
P. 314: “During 1980 conservative writers and commentators, like
those on Gordon McLendon’s radio stations, argued that American
support for the embargo of South Africa was extremely hazardous to the national
security of the United States….”
“Brandy also participated in an association organized by David Atlee Phillips for ex-CIA officers. Phillips had served
as chief of the CIA’s Caribbean and Latin American division before his
retirement in 1975. He became distressed at the exposes of CIA officers, mainly
stemming from the activities of Senator Frank Church’s committee and the work
of investigative reporters following the Watergate scandals. Phillips hoped to
provide money that could serve as a legal defense fund for such officers,
especially if they were libeled in the press and needed to file suit to restore
their names. The organization could also conduct, as an outside group, public
relations efforts to improve the image of the service as a whole. Brandy urged
Phillips to expand his group to include not only former CIA officials, but also
officers from other intelligence services, sucha as the army, navy, and air
force.
Accordingly, Phillips, with the approval of other CIA members, organized
the Association of Former Intelligence
Officers (AFIO). It was Brady’s responsibility to recruit the nucleus of
former heads in the intelligence community, now retired, to represent the
army, navy and air force. He did this by recruiting Vice Admiral Fritz Harlfinger, U.S. Navy, ret., and Lieutenant General
John Davis, U.S. Army, ret., formerly of the ACSI, and deputy director of the
National Security Agency (NSA). Brandy was offered a directorship, but
he turned it down because of his comparatively low rank as a colonel. The
organization needed leaders with significant Washington experience, with
“Beltway” knowledge. He prevered to remain in the background…”
p. 335. Photo caption: “General Walter
Dornberger, father of the German rocket program, visits his close
friend Brandy at Casa Ternquilidad (Mexico) in 1977.…Later, when Dornberger passed away, his widow
sent the general’s personal library, correspondence files, and
mementos given him at West Point and elsewhere to Brandy. She knew that Brandy was an avid collector of such
materials and would cherish and preserve them. He dutifully added them to his
space collection.”
“….With Brandy’s supervision and recommendation to Deke DeLoach, Carlos Solana, his chief of security, had participated with a small group of
Mexican security men in training at the
FBI’s facility in Quantico, Virginia,….”
“…Al Kaplan, who served as Brandy’s
public relations man in the 1970s through his own company, moved on to be
national director of tourism for the US-Mexico Chamber of Commerce…”
“After the divorce, Brandy married again. He had met Marianne Porzelt at one of the backgammon tournaments organized at
his home…They were married 26 December 1978; the best men were Gordon McLendon and the ex-President of
Mexico, Miguel Aleman….”
[BK Notes: So Brandy ran backgammon tournaments organized at his home - a gambling activity, much in line with his partnership in the purchase of Meyer Lansky's San Souci casino in Havana before Castro came to power. ]
“Much of Brandstetter’s career as a G-2 officer and as a reservist with the
staff of the army’s Assistant Chief of Staff-Intelligence (ACSI) was
confidential, and for that reason, documentation on a number of his activities
was inappropriate, or where permissible, difficult to obtain…”
Also See: Brandy: Portrait Of An
Intelligence Officer by Chuck Render and Frank M. Brandstetter. (Elderbery
Press, Aug. 2007)
http://www.flipkart.com/brandy-chuck-render-frank-brandstetter-book-193276285x
Book Summary of Brandy: Portrait Of An
Intelligence Officer (European Edition) By Chuck Render.
Chuck Render was born in Southern
Illinois where he joined the Air Force Reserve on his 17th birthday in January
of 1955. He resigned as a Technical Sergeant flight engineer in 1965 and was
commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. He completed his baccalaureate and masters
degrees at Murray State University in Kentucky and taught math, reading and
music in Bluford, Illinois before completing his doctorate at the University of
Illinois. He became Assistant Director of Administrative Studies at the
University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, and then Director of
Institutional Analysis with rank of Associate Professor at George Mason
University in Fairfax, Virginia. In 1985, he
was recalled to active duty in the Pentagon, serving in the Office of the Chief
of Air Force Reserve and then with the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Reserve Affairs with duties in Operations and Plans. He retired from the
military as a full "bird colonel" in 1995 after 40 years as an Air
Force Reservist and moved to Clarksville, Tennessee.
Frank Maryan "Brandy" Brandstetter was born in 1912 in
Bratislava and schooled by the Sisters of Charity and military officers
throughout his childhood. In his mid-teens, he became a penniless immigrant on
the streets of New York and began a life-long career, working his way up
through the ranks in the hotel business. In January of 1941, he was sworn in as
a U.S. Army Private, was promoted to Sergeant, but was plucked from the ranks,
commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, and assigned to Army Intelligence. After
jumping with the famed 506th "Band of Brothers" on D-Day, he served
at General Matthew B. Ridgway's side
throughout the war and afterward in the fledgling U.N. Organization. Brandy served
his country for more than 50 years as an
Army Reservist, on active duty and off, even at his own expense after
his mandatory retirement age. As this book was being written, he was still residing
in his fortress-like Casa Tranquilidad
(House of Peace) on the mountainside in Acapulco, several hundred yards
below the giant landmark cross and chapel he built.
George Lumpkin: p. 128. “As was common for Brandy, he received a fine commendation for his work from his commanding
officer, at this time, Colonel George Lumpkin....”
[BK Notes: Dallas PD captain George Lumpkin and US Army Reserve Intelligence officer, either drove the pilot car in the motorcade or sat in the front seat. Texas Army Reserve Col. Whitmyer was in the middle of the rear seat. The car drove a mile ahead of the motorcade and was supposed to be on the lookout for any signs of trouble, but didn't see any. It stopped on the corner of Houston and Elm where Lumpkin told the police officer and the sixth floor assassin 60 feet above him that the motorcade was a few minutes away. After the assassination Lumplin returned to the scene where he met with TSBD superintendent Roy Truly. Even though Truly had seen Oswald on the second floor ninety seconds after the last shot, and gave him a pass, Truly now considered Oswald suspect because he was missing. Truly gave Lumpkin a list of employees - Oswald was at the top, with Mrs. Paine's address next to it. Lumpkin and Truly then went to the Sixth Floor where they observed Homicide Capt. Will Fritz examine the rifle that was just found. Lumpkin told Fritz about Oswald being missing and Fritz ordered some police officers to the Irving address that Truly gave him. Fritz then went across the street to visit Sheriff Bill Decker, though there is no record of what they discussed.]
Headquarters
Department of the Army 26 July 1967 General Orders No. 33
Page 5 -
Legion of Merit. By direction of the President...for exceptionally meritorious
conduct in the performance of outstanding service is awarded to...Colonel George L. Lumpkin.
Intelligence and Security, United States Army, July, 1960 – June, 1967
http://www.cmhpf.org/Random
Files/senator sam ervin.htm
"According to Pyle, the U.S. Army
Intelligence Command for the Continental United States ("CONUS
intelligence") included more than one thousand undercover
agents operating in a nationwide system with more than three hundred offices.
Agents sent their reports through a national teletype network to Fort Holabird, Maryland, where the Army kept its central computer."
Brandstetter
talked about the "Central Index of
Subversive Files,” and Pyle talks about the "Compendium" or the "Vault
Files" that Robert Jones
talked about in his HSCA testimony.
Active
Army personal and the people in the Reserves are in a whole different realm. The Active
Army is a full-time job; the Reserves are a part-time job with another life in
the "civilian" world.
As Steve
Thomas wrote at John Simkin’s Education Forum, “Over the years, a number of
groups, or at least rogue elements of those groups have been floated as
suspects in the assassination of JFK. These have included the CIA, the mob, the
right wing, etc. However, I believe that there was another group of people who
seem to appear in key circumstances associated with this event; and these are
colonels in the U.S. Army Reserves, and more specifically the intelligence
services of that military mileau. I don't believe that this group of people
have been examined in any organized way before. I can't point to anything
specific, but I get the impression in my readings that the military
intelligence people did not hold the CIA in any high regard. They saw the CIA
as a bunch of cowboys.”
These
Reservists include among others:
Jack A.
Crichton, who organized the 488th Army Reserves Intelligence unit, half of whom were Dallas policemen, and controlled the Emergency Command and Communications bunker below the Dallas State Fairgrounds, and arranged for the first Russian language translators for Marina Oswald.
Col. George
L. Whitmeyer, the commander of the area's Army Reserve unit who was not pre-approved by the Secret Service as being part of the motorcade, but was invited to go along for the ride by Dallas Police Captain George Lumpkin.
George
Lumpkin - Drove or rode in the front seat of the Pilot Car - that rode a mile ahead of the motorcade to check for any possible danger or interference.
Col. L.
Robert Castorr - Allgedly met with Jack Ruby and others in Dallas over anti-Castro Cuban activities.
Lester
Logue. - Met with Gerry Patrick Hemming, as well as with the Cubans who visited Sylvia Odio with Oswald, who the Warren Commission Report wrongfully identified (as Seymore and Hall).
Colonel
Frank M. (Maryan) "Brandy" Brandstetter
At
various times, Lt. Col. Whitmeyer has been identified as: “Lt. Col. George L.
Whitmeyer, deputy East Texas sector commander, “Colonel Wiedemeyer -
the East Texas Section Commander of the Army Reserve and “Lt. Colonel
George Whitmeyer, U.S. Army, Dallas Sub-section Commander.”
These designations
are not part of the Army's TOE or Table of Expenditures. The Texas
Military Department is composed of the three branches of the military in the
state of Texas - the Texas Army National Guard, the Texas Air National Guard,
and the Texas State Guard. All three branches are administered by the state
Adjutant General, an appointee of the Governor of Texas, and fall under the
command of the Governor.
A
possible source of reference might be here: the Texas State Library. Texas
Adjutant General's Department: An Inventory of Texas State Guard/Texas Defense
Guard/Texas State Guard Reserve Corps Records at the Texas State Archives,
1938-1983, undated (bulk 1941-1945)
On Jack Crichton: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal from Lubbock, Texas · December 5, 1967
Page 16
DALLAS
(API — Col. Jack A. Crichton.
commanding officer of) the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, was
awarded the Legion of Merit Monday night on' his retirement from the Army-
Reserve after 30 years of service. The medal was presented in a ceremony by Col. Robert D. Offer, commander of the VIII
U.S. , Army Corps at Austin. An oil man and petroleum consultant, Crichton
organized his Reserve unit in 1956 and has been its only commander. The
award cited him for "exceptionally outstanding service" as commander
and for the preparation of a series of military intelligence studies.
Ilya Mamantov identified Jack Crichton as a petroleum independent contractor, “and if I'm
not mistaken he is connected with the Army Reserve, Intelligence Service.” Five
minutes later, George Lumpkin called
Mamantov. Thirty minutes before they called Mamantov however, he had called the
FBI and offered his services because he knew Oswald and “knew of his background
here in Dallas.”
Crichton
Legion of Merit Award
page 87
In 1956 Crichton
started up his own spy unit, the 488th Military Intelligence
Detachment. Crichton
served as the unit's commander under Lieutenant Colonel George
Whitmeyer, who was in overall command of all Army Reserve units in East
Texas. In an interview Crichton claimed that there were "about a hundred
men in that unit and about forty or fifty of them were from the Dallas Police
Department
From
Bill Kelly. JFK Countercoup blog July 22, 2012
“On April
1, 1962, Dallas Civil Defense, with Crichton heading its intelligence
component, opened an elaborate underground command post under the patio of the Dallas Health and Science Museum. Because it was intended for
‘continuity-of-government’ operations during an attack, it was fully equipped
with communications equipment.
“The
Office of Civil Defense Mobilization announced Wednesday the approval of a
$120,000 emergency underground operating center for the Dallas City-County
Civil Defense and Disaster Commission. Under Plans formulated last year, OCDM
and Dallas County will match contributions of $60,000 for the center. The
building will be constructed at Fair Park adjacent to the Health and Science
Museum.”
George
Whitmeyer: (George Whitmeyer. Was passenger in the JFK motorcade pilot car.)
"Mr.
Lawson acknowledged that Lt. Col.
George Whitmeyer, who was part of the Dallas District U.S. Army Command,
who Lawson said "taught Army Intelligence" - 1/31/78 HSCA interview of Secret Service agent Winston Lawson
(RIF#18010074-10396)
1963-1964
City Directories list George Whitmeyer as Area Commander USA Reserve Training
Center.
I
believe that he taught at the Jules E. Muchert Army Reserve
Center 10031 E. Northwest Highway, Dallas, TX. This Property was a
part of the original boundaries of White Rock Lake Park. The City of Dallas
sold the Property to the Federal Government in 1956 for an Army Reserve
Training Center Site.
George Lumpkin: Was a passenger and possibly the
driver of the motorcade pilot car of the motorcade, with George Whitmeyer, the
duty of which was to observe and be alert for security reasons.
p. 128.
“As was common for Brandy, he received a fine commendation for his work from
his commanding officer, at this time, Colonel George Lumpkin....”
“In
his civilian life, George Lumpkin was
deputy chief of police in the City of Dallas...”
When
Jack Crichton was asked by the Dallas Police to find a Russian interpretor for
Marina Oswald, Crichton asked George Lumpkin to call Ilya Mamantov. It was
George Lumpkin who took command at the TSBD following the assassination and who
Roy Truly first told that Lee Harvey Oswald was “missing”.
Frank Brandstetter
After graduating from the U.S. Army Intelligence
School, he was trained by British
military intelligence before he parachuted with the 506th Airborne
Infantry Regiment on D-Day and led his IPW (Interrogation of Prisoners
of War) team into World War II. He served as General Matthew B. Ridgway's trusted aide with the XVIII Airborne
Corps until the end of the war, then, with General Ridgway in the
Mediterranean Theater of Operations, and finally with the original, five-nation
United Nations Organization. His awards include the Silver Star and the Bronze
Star.
Brandy
continued for 40 years in uniform as a U.S. Army Reservist frequently providing
assistance to the Office of the Army Chief of Staff for Intelligence, the
Defense Intelligence Agency, the FBI, and the CIA.
Subsequently, Brandstetter
unofficially provided reconnaissance services to the United States, primarily
at his own expense, to China, Greece, Cyprus, Morocco, South Africa, Spain,
Argentina, Yugoslavia, and many other hot spots at times when security threats
were emerging.
Brandy, Our Man in Acapulco: The
Life and Times of Colonel Frank M. Brandstetter. A Biography by Rodney P.
Carlisle and Dominic J. Monetta. University of North Texas Press, 1999.
p. 118.
“Brandy's move from San Francisco to Dallas resulted in his transfer from the
Officers Reserve Control Group with the Sixth Army in San Francisco to one with
the Fourth Army in San Antonio in
the G-2 section.”
p. 120.
“...in December, 1951 he was assigned to reserve duty training in Dallas. In
March, 1952 his file was submitted for a security background check. That work
was finally completed on 30 June, 1953 and he was once again cleared for
material up to and including Top Secret”. “Brandy soon began teaching and
participating in a few courses in specialized intelligence studies.
p. 120.
Brandy wrote to Colonel J.P. Kaylor of
the Fourth Army's G-2 section and “...suggested monthly or semi-monthly
briefings in a private area “where classified material could be read and
secured,” meetings with Civilian Defense Authorities for liaison in
case of emergencies, and correspondence courses.” (See the entry for Crichton)
pp.
127…. “after leaving Jamaica in early 1957, Brandy served as assistant troop
commander and provost marshal of the Fourth
U.S. Army Area Intelligence School for two weeks in August, 1957.
These
intelligence school sessions reviewed procedures and studies in a wide variety
of areas for reserve intelligence officers including a review of a Central Index of Investigative and Domestic Subversive
files.
p. 128.
“As was common for Brandy, he received a fine commendation for his work from
his commanding officer, at this time, Colonel George Lumpkin...In his
civilian life, George Lumpkin was deputy chief of police in the City of
Dallas...”
p. 121.
“While at the Presidio, Brandy had prepared a draft of a Domestic
Emergency Plan, which he revised and submitted in 1954 as part of the Cloverleaf I exercise, to G-2 of the
Fourth Army Command in Dallas, Colonel
M.H. Truly.” (Any
relation to Roy Truly of the TSBD?)
(Colonel
M.H. Truly would submit a report on a UFO sighting in Texas and New Mexico in
April, 1955 to the Assistant Chief of Staff, G2, Department of the Army.)
“...in
December, 1953 he (Brandstetter) and several other officers were attached to
different units for the first three months of 1954 assigned
as “Inspector/Advisors” "
Colonel
L. Robert Castorr: Would be linked to a gun running scheme to Cuba with Nancy
Perrin Rich and Jack Ruby.
The
Mexia Daily News from Mexia, Texas · Page 1
November 7, 1957
(L.
Robert Castorr) “Mr. Castorr. who is now a- colonel in the Active Reserve
serving as inspector and advisor to the 90th Division in Texas...”
Registrations
by Lobbyists An
article from CQ Almanac 1970 Following
is a list of persons and organizations that filed lobby registrations from Dec.
23, 1969 (the date of adjournment of the First Session of the 91st Congress) to
Jan. 3, 1971 (the date of adjournment of the Second Session of the 91st
Congress)
NATIONAL
TAX ACTION INC., 1033 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. Filed 1/16/70.
Registered
for itself.
Legislative
interest—“Appropriations, taxation and economy in Government. In general,
opposed to increased spending without more economy. Favor less international
commitments, and less taxation.”
Expenses—“Anticipated,
$100 each for two agents, totaling $200 monthly to cover expenses.”
Lobbyist—L. Robert Castorr, president, same address as
employer. Filed 1/16/70.
Legislative
interest—“Economy in Government.”
Frank
Brandstetter: (A tantalizing side note):
Brandy, Our Man in Acapulco: The
Life and Times of Colonel Frank M. Brandstetter. A Biography by Rodney P.
Carlisle and Dominic J. Monetta. University of North Texas Press, 1999.
p. 117
In March, 1951, Brandy took over the management of the restaurant chain
for Continental Trailways, a
newly formed subsidiary of the Santa Fe
Railroad. Trailways would become the nation's second largest bus
company after Greyhound. Maurice Moore appointed Brandy as President of the
restaurant subsidiary, Continental Restaurants. Continental was headquartered
in Dallas, TX. Brandy planned the construction of
new bus depots. Developed training and instruction manuals, and introduced
pre-cooked frozen meals to smaller kitchens within a four hundred mile radius
from a central kitchen in Dallas. He designed their logo, and raised sales from
$215,000 in 1951 to $1,228,000 in 1953.
p. 125. “General Carl L. Phinney, an
attorney for Continental Trailways and commander of the Texas National
Guard knew that Brandy was looking for new ventures.” Clint Murchison was
a “member of the Board of Directors of Continental Trailways.”
“On
September 26, Oswald boarded Continental Trailways bus No. 5133 in
Houston and departed at 2:35 AM for Laredo, TX...”
REPORT:INTERCONTINENTAL
PENETRATION FORCES/NEUTRALITY MATTERS
LESTER LOGUE
Page 3Met
with Hemming in July, 1963. Also met with Hall and Seymour who left a trailer
full of weapons at his house in October, 1963.
Brandy:
Portrait of an Intelligence Officer by Chuck Render, Ed. D. Col. USAF ret.
Astronaut
James A. Lovell, Jr. Our Man in Acapulco – The Life and Times of Frank Maryan
“Brandy” Brandstetter – By Rodney P. Carlsile (Rutgers history) and Dominic J.
Monetta.
