The Collins Radio Connections to the Dealey Plaza Operation

THE COLLINS RADIO CONNECTIONS to the Assassination of President Kennedy

By William E. Kelly – Revised from report originally published in Backchannels magazine and presented at the national conference of the Coalition on Political Assassination (COPA), October 10, 1994.

If the assassination of President Kennedy was the result of not only a conspiracy, but a covert action and coup d’etat, as many people believe, there should be evidence of this from both the scene of the crime(s) as well as from the highest echelons of power among those who took over the government. This would be especially so if the assassination was not the actions of a lone-nut or a foreign attack by Cuban or Soviet intelligence service sponsors, but an internal manipulation of policy and control, an inside job.

As Edward Luttwack describes in his "How-To" book Coup d’etat – A Practical Handbook(Alfred A. Knopf, 1968, p. 117), "Control over the flow of information emanating from the political center will be our most important weapon in establishing… authority after the coup. The seizure of the main means of mass communication will thus be a task of crucial importance."

At the scene(s) of the crime, eyewitness testimony is always suspect. Homicide detectives prefer more solid leads that provide documented evidence that can be introduced in court, such as fingerprints, telephone and automobile license records.

There are a number of automobile license records of significance in regards to the assassination of President Kennedy, including the tampered photo among the possessions of Lee Harvey Oswald of the license on 1957 Chevy in General Walker’s driveway, plus the license numbers of cars seen in Dealey Plaza photos immediately before and after the assassination.

Most significant however, is the Texas plate PP4537. This number was jotted down on a piece of paper by an elderly Oak Cliff mechanic T. F. White, who noticed a man acting suspiciously behind the wheel of a 1958 two tone Plymouth sedan shortly after the murder of Dallas Policeman J.D. Tippitt in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas. The car was parked behind a billboard in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant, with the driver, like White, watching the flurry of Dallas police cars racing down the street with sirens blaring, called to the nearby scene of the shooting of Tippit.

White walked across the street to get closer and exchanged glances with the man, who quickly drove away. White wrote down the license tag PP4537 on a piece of paper and forgot about it until later that day when he saw Lee Harvey Oswald on television and recognized him as the man he saw acting suspiciously in the Plymouth earlier that afternoon.

A few weeks later, when Dallas radio reporter and later mayor of Dallas Wes Wise gave a talk at the Oak Cliff restaurant, the owner of the garage where Mr. White worked mentioned the suspicious Plymouth to Wise, who then met White. White reluctantly told his story, but was reluctant to get involved, and Wise had to use all his powers of persuasion to convince White to share the information with him. Wise promised White he would not be brought into the investigation, but tat he, Wise, would handle it. "Do you have the piece of paper with the license number on it?" Wise asked, and sure enough, White had it right there in his pocket and gave it to Wise. It read: PP4537.

White told Wise that nobody knew who or what was really behind the assassination of President Kennedy and he really didn’t want to get involved, but he handed over the paper to Wise, who passed it on to the police and FBI.

A quick check of the Texas plate #PP4537 indicated that it was assigned to Carl Mather, of Garland, Texas. When the FBI went out to the listed Garland address they found the two tone 1958 Plymouth right there in the driveway and knocked on the door. Mrs. Mather answered, acknowledged the car belonged to her husband, who was then away at work at Collins Radio, in nearby Richardson, Texas. When asked where her husband and the car was on Friday, November 22, 1963, she said that the car was in the parking lot at Collins Radio until sometime in the afternoon when her husband returned home and picked up the family to go to the Tippit residence to pay their respects to the widow and family of their good friend, who was murdered that day.

Instead of going out to Collins Radio to interview Mather however, the FBI went first to Mr. White, who Wes Wise had promised wouldn’t be involved, and took additional statements from him, changing his story for the official reports and exchanging the two tone Plymouth to a red Ford Falcon. CBS News made a polite inquiry years later, leaving Carl Mather out of the documentary program they aired but listed Mrs. Mather in the programs credits. The House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) briefly looked into the affair, granted Mather immunity from prosecution to testify and then failed to question him under oath. The HSCA published a short report they titled "The Wise Allegation," when in fact Wes Wise made no allegations, and merely followed up on his reporter’s instincts. He came up with an automobile license plate number that was scene near the murder of a Dallas policeman that was traced to one of the victim’s best friends, Carl Mather, whose alibi is that he was at work at the time, at Collins Radio.

Documents later released under the JFK Act indicate that Mather was questioned by HSCA investigators and claimed that he worked on electronics at Collins, his specific job being the installation of the radio equipment aboard Air Force Two – the Vice President’s plane.

That this lead was not properly investigated, and remains uninvestigated today, is because such an inquiry actually does lead to the heart of the plot to murder not only Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit, but as many believe, is tied directly to the assassination of President Kennedy. If the Tippit murder is connected to the assassination of the President, as the official stories alleges, then the Tippit murder may be the "Rosetta Stone" that could explain the mysteries of both murders.

The significance of the Collins Radio connections becomes apparent with a quick review of the published record, and that:

1. On November 1, 1963 the New York Times published a photograph of the ship the Rex, which Fidel Castro identified as the boat that dropped off a team of assassins in Cuba a few nights previous. The Rex was docked at Palm Beach, Florida, near the JFK family compound, and the Rex’s Halloween eve mission was in clear violation of President Kennedy’s March 1963 edict that no para-military raids against Cuba were to originate from U.S. shores. According to the article in the NYTs, the Rex had been sold by the Somoza regime in Nicaragua to the Belcher Oil Company, its dock fees paid by the CIA front company Sea Ship Inc., with the Rex then being leased to the Collins Radio Company of Richardson, Texas, "for scientific research."

2. Founded by Arthur Collins, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Collins Radio first made news headlines when young Collins was an amateur radio buff with the only (home made) radio receiver who could pick up the radio transmissions of Navy Commander Richard E. Byrd from his polar exploration expedition. [Richard Byrd is the cousin of the founder of the Civil Air Patrol and owner of the Texas School Book Depository building].

3. Collins Radio became a major defense contractor during World War II, and following the war, participated in Operation Paperclip, hiring Dr. Alex Lipisch, the former Nazi scientist who developed the Delta I glider and ME 163 Komet jet fighter. For Collins, Lipisch was assigned to the boat development program that worked with General Dynamics in attempting to build and refine a sleek, swift speedboat – the V20 - that could be used for Cuban infiltration missions like the Rex mission. It was later used in Vietnam.

4. David Ferrie’s telephone records reflect that in the weeks before the assassination he made frequent calls from the New Orleans law office of G. Ray Gill to the Belcher Oil Company of Dallas, Texas, the company that was the listed owner of the Rex.

5. In the week before the assassination, a reservation was made at Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club for a large party of Collins Radio employees.

6. The Dallas P.D. Intelligence Division maintained a paid informant who worked at Collins Radio and reported on fellow employees who appeared suspicious or subversive, including one who was reported to subscribe to the leftist I.F. Stone Weekly.

7. When Lee Harvey Oswald returned to Texas from Soviet Russia, George DeMohrenschildt introduced him to retired Navy Admiral Chester Bruton, an executive at Collins Radio, with the idea of Oswald getting a job there, as he had worked in a radio factory in Minsk, USSR. Oswald and Marina visited Bruton with DeMohrenschilt.

8. At the time of the assassination Adml. Bruton was working on a top-secret nuclear submarine communications project for Collins, with the Navy’s nuclear sub radar and communications HQ being based at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, close neighbors of Michael Paine’s family island.

9. In 1963 Collins Radio began receiving large military contracts including one for the construction of a microwave communications network in Southeast Asia, specifically Vietnam.

10. After Oswald was murdered while in Dallas police custody by Jack Ruby, his widow Marina P. Oswald married former Collins Radio employee Kenneth Porter.

11. In Miami, Florida, a Cuban exile, and former executive of Collins Radio, was murdered, assassinated in a still unsolved homicide.

12. Collins Radio supplied and maintained the equipment used by the Voice of America, all manned NASA space flights, the Strategic Air Command (SAC), as well as all equipment used for the CIA’s Guatemalan and Cuban operations. Most significantly, Collins Radio was responsible for installing and maintaining all radio equipment aboard Air Force One, Air Force Two and the Cabinet’s plane.

13. According to the Collins Radio Annual Report to stockholders for 1963-64, Collins Radio not only installed and maintained the radios aboard most military and executive branch planes, they also operated the station known as "Liberty" at their Cedar Rapids, Iowa headquarters, which served as a relay station for all radio communications between the White House, the Pentagon, Air Force One, Air Force Two, the Cabinet plane and Andrews AFB in Washington.

[This "Liberty" station is misidentified on most transcripts of the edited version of the radio transmissions from Air Force One on 11/22/63. "Air Force One, the Presidential airplane, was placed in service in 1962 using communications equipment developed and manufactured by Collins. The aircraft…was modified to meet special requirements…In 1962, the station many remember as "Liberty" was opened and operated from the new communications building….(in Cedar Rapids, Iowa)…Collins had a contract with the Air Force to serve as either the primary communications station or as a backup whenever Air Force One, the presidential aircraft, and other aircraft in the VIP fleet carried cabinet members or high ranking military officers. Over the airwaves the station’s call word was ‘Liberty.’" – From Collins Radio – the First 50 Years.]

In his book The Making of a President – 1964, Theodore H. White wrote: "There is a tape recording in the archives o the government which best recaptures the sound of the hours as it waited for leadership. It is a recording of all the conversations in the air, monitored by the Signal Corps Midwestern center ‘Liberty,’ between Air Force One in Dallas, the Cabinet plane over the Pacific, and the Joint Chiefs’ Communications Center in Washington….On the flight the party learned that there was no conspiracy, learned the identity of Oswald and his arrest; and the President’s mind turned to the duties of consoling the stricken and guiding the quick."

According to the analysis of E. Martin Schotz and Vincent Salandria (in History Will Not Absolve Us, 1996), "And yet the White House had informed President Johnson and the other occupants of Air Force One, all of them witnesses to the hail of bullets which had poured down on Dealey Plaza, that as of the afternoon of the assassination there was to be no conspiracy and that Oswald was to be the lone assassin. If White’s report were correct this would mean that federal officials in Washington were marrying the government to the cover-up of Oswald as the lone assassin virtually instantaneously. This could have occurred only if those federal authorities had had foreknowledge that the evidence would implicate Oswald and that he would have ‘no confederates.’ An innocent government could not have reacted in such a fashion internally."

Unfortunately, there is no longer "a tape recording in the archives of the government," as the original, unedited, multiple tape recordings of the AF1 radio transmissions cannot be located despite an Act of Congress, the request of the Assassinations Records Review Board (ARRB) and numerous Freedom of Information Act requests. Our government seems to have simply lost the recordings, with no records being kept of their whereabouts or destruction, if in fact they were destroyed.

The Final Report of the ARRB (p. 116) notes:

"6. White House Communications Agency. "WHCA was, and is, responsible for maintaining both secure (encrypted) and unsecured (open) telephone, radio and telex communications between the President and the government of the United States. Most of the personnel that constitute this elite agency are U.S. military communications specialists; many, in 1963, were from the Army Signal Corps. On November 22, 1963, WHCA was responsible for communications between and among Air Force One and Two, the White House Situation Room, the mobile White House, and with the Secret Service in the motorcade."

"The Review Board sought to locate any audio recordings of voice communications to or from Air Force One on the day of the assassination, including communications between Air Force one and Andrews Air Force Base during the return flight from Dallas to Washington D.C. As many people are now aware of, in the 1970s, the LBJ Presidential Library released edited audio cassettes of the unsecured, or open voice conversations with Air Force One, Andrews AFB, the White House Situation Room, and the Cabinet Aircraft carrying the Secretary of State and other officials on November 22, 1`963. The LBJ Library version of these tapes consists of about 110 minutes of voice transmissions, but the tapes are edited and condensed, so the Review Board staff sought access to unedited, uncondensed versions. Since the edited versions of the tapes contain considerable talk about both the forthcoming autopsy on the President, as well as the reaction of a government in crisis, the tapes are of considerable interest to assassination researchers and historians."

"Given that the LBJ Library released the tapes in the 1970s, the paper trail is now sketch and quite cold. The LBJ Library staff is fairly confident that the tapes originated with the White House Communications Agency (WHCA). The LBJ Library staff told the Review Board staff that it received the tapes from the White House as part of the original shipment of President Johnson’s papers in 1968 or 1969. According to the LBJ Library’s documentation, the accession card reads: "WHCA?" and is dated 1975. The Review Board staff could not locate any records indicating who performed the editing, or when, or where."

"The Review Board’s repeated written and oral inquiries of the White House Communications Agency did not bear fruit. The WHCA could not produce any records that illuminated the provenance of the edited tapes."

At the time I delivered my report on "The Collins Radio Connections" to the National COPA Conference in Washington in October, 1994, the Washington Post had just then exposed the true occupant of a new, mammoth, suburban Virginia building. It was not the headquarters for Collins Radio/Rockwell International as had been previously reported, but they had just been the cooperating cover company for the super secret National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), just as Collins Radio had served as a cover for the CIA in the operation of the Rex in Cuba in1963.

Also, in the October, 1998 issue of John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s George Magazine, - David Wise reported on how the NRO had "lost" $6 billion in U.S. taxpayer’s money, and specifically mentioned the fiasco surrounding the construction of the HQ building, or which Collins/Rockwell served as a cover company.

2018 UPDATE: Arthur Collins was in Dallas and at the Trade Mart waiting for the president when he was killed. As director of the Research Center of the Southwest, a conglamorate of Texas defense contractors and local colleges and university engineering departments, Collins’ Research Center was to be honored at the Trade Mart and it is mentioned in the first paragraph of JFK’s undelivered speech.

The batch of records recently released in 2017 under the JFK Act include a number of new records that were declared Not Believed Relevant NBR by the ARRB, but are indeed relevant, as they detail the close collaboration among the Texas Defense contractors not only in the establishment of the Research Center of the Southwest but also in overseas operations with the CIA and NSA.

WHCA After Action Reports 11/22/63

WHCA Communication Center After Action Reports
White House Communications Agency (WHCA) Communications Center Swtichboard
Radio Operators After Action Reports 

[BK Notes: Many thanks to Doug Horne for providing these records]

THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
April 1, 1997

Ronald G. Haron
Senior Attorney
Assassinations Records Review Board
600 E. Street 2nd Floor
Washington D.C. 20530

Dear Mr. Haron,

White House Communications Agency (WHCA) has searched their files for assassination-related records and was able to locate several statements from WHCA personnel who were on duty at various locations at the time of the assassination of President Kennedy. These statements were found in a folder titled “PRES KENNEDY ASSASSINAITON”. Copies of the statements are attached. There is no other assassination related material in the folder, except the list of telephone calls recorded by the White House switchboard on 22 November 1963, previously forwarded to your office.

The WHCA has completed its assassination-related records search.

Sincerely
SIGNED
Gregory G. Raths
LtCol USMC
Assistant Chief of Staff
White House Office

STATEMENTS [BK Notes: These statements are in the order in which they were in the file except for Trimble has been moved from third to the end]

CWO Arthur W. Bales, Jr.
WHCA Trip Officer for Presidential Visit to Dallas, Texas

SSG Brazell, Chief Switchboard Operator
White House Switchboard in Dallas, Texas

MSG Tarbell, Chief Switchboard Operator
Signal Switchboard, Washington, D.C.

SFB Carriger, Chief Operator,
Communications Center, Washington D.C.

SP4 Witte, Operator, Communications Center
Washington D.C.

SGT Bodenstiner, Operator, Communications Center,
Washington D.C.

MSG John Trimble, Radio Operator
Aboard AF-1 for flight from Dallas, Texas to Washington D.C. 

THE WHITE HOUSE
COMMUNICATIONS BRANCH
SUBJECT: Sequence of Events – 22 November 1963
TO: Commanding Officer, WHCA

Following is approximately the sequence of events, as recalled by the undersigned, in Dallas, Texas, 22 November 1963

1. Prior Communications Arrangements: The Dallas White House had been established in the Sheraton-Dallas Hotel, and Communications facilities included a one-position switchboard with 3 dial trunks, 2 LD’s 3 tie lines to the Fort Worth White House Bd, 1 tie line to the Sheraton-Dallas Hotel Bd., 3 extensions to Love Field, 4 extensions to the Dallas Trade Mart (site of the President’s scheduled speech), secure teletype equipment, and radio and phone patch facilities to cover the motorcade.

2. Planned schedule of Events: The undersigned was to cover the President’s arrival at Love Field, and, with the Special WHCA Courier, travel in the motorcade and cover all stops to include the President’s departure from Dallas. SSGT Robert D. Brazell, with six men, were manning the Dallas White House; and seven men, making the Texas circuit aboard the Press Plane, were to remain at Love Field, as they would not be needed in Dallas. A recoding technician, Specialist John Muhlers, was set up and stationed at the Dallas Trade Mart to record the President’s speech and to furnish audio feeds to the various news media.

3. The arrival and Motorcade: Air Force One landed and the President spent some time shaking hands and greeting the large crowd at Love Field. The motorcade then departed for the trip through downtown Dallas and to the Trade Mart. In the WHCA Communications Car were: A telco driver; the undersigned WHCA Advance Officer; the WHCA Courier, Mr. Gearheart; and the Telco special representative (or “Shadow”), Mr. Herb Smith. We were approximately six cars and two (Press and Staff) buses behind the President. The motorcade had just passed the last buildings on the route before entering the freeway to the Trade Mart. The WHCA Communications Car was around two corners from and not in sight of the President’s car. Three explosions were heard, and I thought that they were backfires from vehicles up ahead. Herb Smith remarked that firecrackers were inappropriate for the occasion. Then the USSS Agent riding with the President announced on the FM “Charlie” radio, :Lawson, he’s hit”. The motorcade came to an abrupt halt with one bus and the WHCA car still around two corners from the President. Realizing that emergency communications facilities may be required on the spot, I instructed the driver to get Mr. Gearhart immediately to the vicinity of the President and to keep him there regardless of my own location. I, with the Telco representative, Mr. Smith, then started running toward the scene of the shooting. As we rounded the first corner the motorcade suddenly raced away. I commandeered a police car and instructed the driver to take us immediately to the Parkland Hospital. We arrived short minutes after the President.

4. The Parkland Hospital: The very limited telephone facilities at the hospital were tired up by the members of the Press Pool. I immediately seized all but one line (leaving Merriman Smith on the one most remote from the Emergency Rooms) and established direct circuits to the Signal Board in Washington; the Dallas White House Bd; and to the Signal board via the Dallas and Fort Worth White House Boards. I assigned police officers to guard these phones and instructed the individual Signal Operators in Washington who were on these circuits to handle no other calls, but to guard these lines exclusively. I then ordered six lines in to the hospital from the Dallas White House Board and informed appropriate White House Aides of my actions. I then checked back with the Dallas White House and learned that SSGT Brazell had, on is own initiative, ordered in an additional switchboard position, 3 additional dial trunks, 4 trunks to Washington, and had alerted Telco to the possibility of further TTY facilities being required. I instructed SSGT Brazell to direct for of the seven men (Press Plane Riders) at Love Field to report to me at the hospital, and the other three report to him at the hotel. The six lines to the hospital, the four trunks to Washington, and the additional TTY facilities were cancelled before completion. As the WHCA personnel arrived from Love Field, they replaced the police officers who had been guarding the seized telephone lines. At the appropriate time I instructed Mr. Gearhart to remain with the President Johnson, and they left shortly for Love Field. I remained at the hospital and later went to the field with (the body of) President Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy, instructing the WHCA personnel to remain at the hospital until released by the White House Staff personnel who were remaining there a while longer. Meanwhile, I had advised Captain Stoughton, WHCA Photographer, and SP5 Muler (Recording – stationed at the Trade Mart) of President Johnson’s return to Air Force One: enabling Captain Stoughton to be the only photographer aboard when the President took his oath of office. Muler recorded the proceedings, and the tape was returned to Washington via Colonel McNally aboard the Press Plane.

ARTHUR W. BALES, JR.
CWO USA
Trip Officer 

Brazell
DALLAS

PHYSICAL SITUATION

1.1-Position 555 PBX trunking to Washington through Ft. Worth with no direct connection to Washington.
2.3 city dials
3.3 LD toll terminals
4.Radio on top of PBX

CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

1.Complete relaxation waiting for parade to arrive at luncheon site.
2.(1230) Sudden blaring of radio “Lead us straight to the hospital he’s been shot – repetition “He’s been shot.”
3.Realization of inadequate facilities to handle any emergency of this type.
4.Placed order for additional 555 position, additional dial trunks and more extensions in the room even before the party arrived at the hospital.
5.Party reached hospital and all dial trunks lit up immediately.
6.Direct connection set up immediately between Agent directly outside of emergency room and Mr. Behn in his office in Washington which became the Washington Command Post and clearing house. Ordered to monitor the circuit which was done to the best of ability on top of moving regular traffic.
7.Calls from members of the President’s family bridged into the Behn-Emergency room focus. (E.g. Attorney General asking whether a priest had been called.)
8.Constant advisement on the location of the Vice President.
9.Made arrangements with police to have WHCA Press Plane party rushed to hotel for use as needed.
10.Dispatch of part of this contingent to assist at the hospital on CWO Bales’ orders.
11.Mr. Kilduff ordering return of delegation enroute to Japan immediately upon perceiving seriousness of the situation. Placing of this in the hands of the WHCA Duty Officer in Washington.
12.Answering calls with extension on top of PBX; then routing them to proper spot. Utilized radio man Lukens on “hold and wait” calls.
13.President Johnson returns to aircraft.
14.Second peak of calls for day doing such things as finding Judge Sarah T. Hughes to swear the President in and finding someone in the Department of Justice to dictate the oath of office. Vice President Johnson personally spoke to the clerk In Judge Hughes’ Office.
15.By this time the telephone company had performed a near miracle and installed the second 555 position with three additional dial trunks on it.
16.An effort was being made to bring up four full periods back to Washington but desisted when it became obvious that the need for them was almost over.
17. As a general comment: enough traffic passed through that one position 555 as should normally have gone through a 3-position PBX at full throttle.

SSgt Brazell

PS: The Switchboard operator recalls placing a call from Attorney General to Air Force One prior to the swearing in ceremonies; he does not know to whom he spoke but feels it was to the Vice President.

On November 22, 1963 the first indication of any sort of trouble in Texas was a short UPI release which came in on the printer in the Comm Center at approximately 12:30 p.m. stating that the President had been shot in Dallas, Texas. We here at the Washington Switchboard had heard nothing of any trouble. However, shortly after we received this we received an incoming call from Agent Emory Roberts in Dallas asking for Chief Wildy and then right after this call another call from Mr. Bales at the hospital in Dallas, asking us to stay on the line and keep the circuit open. One operator did just that. We actually did not get official word of the assassination. Just information via radio, and of course, many rumors as to who had been killed or wounded. First reports had it that an Agent had been shot along with the President. Of course, not having any official word, we could not give out any information.

As the minutes passed it became more and more apparent that what was just rumor was not fact and at approximately 2:05 p.m. official word was released that President Kennedy had been shot and killed while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Immediately after the announcement, the switchboard went completely wild with everyone attempting to call out and anxious wives trying to call in to find out if their husbands were all right. The Sterling Exchange within a short time became overloaded and we could not dial out. The focal point for calls here at the White House was John McNally’s office in the East Wing with Senators and Congressmen proceeding there. It soon became apparent that one line off of our board could not handle traffic so five (5) additional temporary lines were asked for and were installed at 1645 to Mr. McNally’s office.

We had no direct lines to Dallas, Texas off our board. We had full period loops to Fort Worth, Texas and they worked Dallas off their board. They only had a two position 555 and could not really handle too large volume of traffic. They were able to advise us when the oath of office was administered to President Johnson and when Air Force 1 took off from Dallas. As soon as it was ascertained where the body of President Kennedy was to be taken we started asking for lines to that location. One line to the Naval Medical Center was installed at 1850 and an additional line to same location was put in at 2052. During the time that Air Force 1 was enroute back here, we had a constant phone patch up to them with President Johnson calling various people here in D.C. and in Texas.

At this time we only had one line off our board to the President’s residence on 52nd Street, N.W. It was decided that this would not be sufficient to handle traffic so five additional lines were installed to that location at approximately 2200. Also at the same time, we had President Johnson’s commercial phone disconnected at this residence.

The personnel on duty here at the Signal Switchboard on the day shift of course did not leave at 3:00 p.m. when the shift ordinarily ends, but stayed on duty until approximately 7:00 p.m. with the exception of my self and I went home at 11:00 p.m. after a long and hectic day.

Never in all my experience on the switchboard have I ever seen a board so busy for such a great length of time. It was an experience which all of us here at the Switchboard do not want to happen again at least in our lifetime.

(Sgt. Tarbell) 

RESUME OF EVENTS OF 22 NOV 1963:

Someone handed me a bulletin from UPI stating that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Tex. I immediately called Sgt. Tucker and passed info to her. Her immediate reaction was “Oh, you’re kidding me”, repeated several times. After I had somewhat convinced her that info received over UPI news ckt., she said she would pass to Major Patterson.

Next I took bulletin to Mr. Harmon, the Duty Officer. He was on phone at the time trying to get verification and amplification of facts. All later releases were passed to Mr. Harmon to centralize all info.

We were working Dallas via TWX. We immediately called Dallas and kept them “up” on the TWX. We next attempted to get a full period on-line ckt. with Dallas. I don’t recall if this project was completed. Next, we re-activated full period on-line ckt. to Ft. Worth. This took approx. two hours to complete due to the fact the circuit had been released to Telco earlier.

Comm Center personnel were calling in for instructions. Advised to “stick close to phone” and if anything developed, we would advise. Some of the evening trick personnel reported for duty as much as one and a half hours early and some of the day trick personnel stayed on duty until President Johnson returned to Wash, D.C.

There were no increases in traffic during this time. However, later that night, we started reviving messages of condolences from various heads of State.

During return flight of AF-1 from Dallas, we were working the aircraft via KW-7. The operator aboard the aircraft was so busy that he could not attend the ckt. We attempted to relay three or four messages of condolences to AF-1 (one of the messages was from Queen Elizabeth) but were unable to ascertain that the message was received. 

Polly Yates, Asst. to General Clifton

We informed Polly Yates of situation. She said if were unable to get a receipt for the messages, she would see that they were available for delivery upon PRES US arrival in Wash. D.C. We did not get any acknowledgements of receipt and Miss Yates was so informed.

SFC CARRIGER 

SP4 Witte
22 NOV 63 IN COMMCENTER

I was wandering about the Comm Center as usual picking up little bits of information about how the place worked when I was attracted by a series of 5 bells on UPI. I looked over PFC Russell’s shoulder to see what was about to appear. There was nothing for what seemed like a long time, but was probably less than ten seconds, and then, on a line, in a shaky hand came UPI’s bulletin heading “….Dallas, with Kennedy….” The text consisted of five words on line, gabled, misspelled and unsteady, “Kennedy, Connelly shot, possibly fatally.” And then nothing.

Russell jumped and said “hey you guys, look at this!”, The guys were SGTS Dreyllinger and Bodensteinger who were standing by the TWX. Dreylinger and Bodensteiner laughed slightly, as one would at a bad joke (which, it turned out, is what they thought it was). I went around to check the patch board to make sure someone hadn’t plugged UPI onto a different machine and put a piece of our gear at the other end of the monitor I had been watching in order to see what kind of action they could get out of duping a couple of new bodies in the Comm Cener (It had been a slow afternoon). For a full minute people just walked around in circles, Russell and I affirming that we had actually seen the bulletin come in on the monitor (although admitting the possibility that someone at UPI might be wanting to lose his job in a hurry), and the rest of the Comm Center personnel becoming more and more convinced that the bulletin was real. AP came in with a confirming bulletin in about 70 seconds after UPI. Someone called the Duty Officer. A couple of people, including myself began to ring up the trip sites and put them in uppers. Someone in the front office began to call up off duty personnel and have some of them report to the Comm Center. SFC McCullough began to get the suitcases down from above the ECTRRM gear. I spent the rest of the afternoon passing general info and info from the news services to the trip sites.

Patrick and I went home at the usual time, more to get us out of the way than for any other reason.

SGT Bodensteiner 22 NOV 63 in comcen

Resume of events in Commcen - 22 Nov ’63

I was working on a circuit near our UPI and AP news monitors when one of the other operators, who had been reading the news, told me that the President had been shot. My first reaction was that I thought he was only joking.

He then told me to come and read it on the UPI monitor myself. This still didn’t convince me that it was true, thinking that he could have easily typed it on the machine himself as a joke. I no sooner had told him that wasn’t a very nice rumor to start when I saw a more detailed item come over our AP monitor. We then told the other operators and the D.O. was notified.

The next hour or so was spent mostly between watching the news for the latest developments and informing our personnel that were out at the various trip sites on this tour of the President.

The rest of the day followed the general routine for a normal day, except for the atmosphere of tragedy and the conversation among the operators on duty.

Most of the operators on the day shift stayed over three to four hours after the normal shift change in case of any unexpected occurrence.

SGT BODENSTEINER 

TRIMBLE - AF1 Radio Operator

22 November 1963

After an overnight at Ft. Worth, Air Force One departed Carswell AFB at 1125 AM (Local Time) for Dallas. After a short flight we arrived at Dallas and blocked in at 1140 AM.

After the rain storm of the previous night the sun seemed particularly bright as the President and First Lady deplaned to the warm greeting of what was probably the largest crowd of the Texas tour. The Last we were to see of them together was when they departed the airport in their open car. 

The first indication that anything was amiss came when one of the WHCA representatives, Theron Burgess, who was on duty at the airport, told me that someone in the motorcade had been hurt. My first reaction was that one of the Secret Service Agents had fallen from the car. About 15 minutes later we were told the ready the airplane for immediate take-off. At this time we were not told why we were leaving or what our destination would be. No information was forthcoming at this time and since we at least needed a destination for flight clearance purpose Col. Swindal asked me to check with the switchboard. After identifying myself to the switchboard operator he told me that the President had been shot and that no other information was available. This was relayed to Col. Swindal although he had just heard it himself from another source.

My communications equipment had been on since receiving the immediate take-off order. I had cleared a voice and teletype frequency with Andrews Airways. Even though I was using the call sign AF 26000 and could not tell the reason for clearing a voice frequency, Andrews cooperated fully. I was making periodic signal checks with Andrews when someone entered the airplane and said the President was dead.

All the chatter ceased and I think we were all numb and did out jobs automatically as we waited --- waited for the body to arrive from the hospital; waited for President Johnson; and finally for the judge to arrive and perform the swearing-in ceremony.

We departed Dallas at 1447 Dallas time for the three hour flight to Washington.

I was busy every minute of the trip and had three phone patches going simultaneously for much of the time. The normal HF air to ground communications had to yield to higher priority traffic. Some position reports were sent, some were not. Quite a bit of time was spent by Dr. Burkley and General Clifton in the air and General Heaton on the ground concerning removal and preparation of the body after reaching Andrews.

My circuits were in continuous use and Andrews always had a waiting list of various officials who wanted to communicate with the airplane. Due to the limited facilities on both ends, many times I had to decide who we would talk with next. I had a good knowledge of the Kennedy team and don’t think I made any mistakes in this respect.

We had been cleared to an altitude of 29,000 feet upon leaving Dallas. I was able to send one of the few position reports over Nashville and found that we were then at 41,000 feet because of winds and weather.

About this time I received a call from the rear of the plane saying that President Johnson wanted a phone patch with Mrs. Rose Kennedy. I immediately seized my best frequency and placed the call through Andrews and the WHCA switchboard. A short time later both the President and Mrs. Johnson offered their condolences to Mrs. Rose Kennedy. These Mrs. Kennedy accepted in a strong, clear voice.

A few minutes later I placed a call, again through the WHCA switchboard to the wife of Governor Connely in Dallas. Both the President and the First Lady talked with Mrs. Connely and assured her that the Governor would be all right.

The rest of the flight was about as hectic as the first. We landed at Andrews and blocked in at 1805 local time.

A large crowd and many bright lights were visible when the doors were opened. Mrs. Kennedy was scheduled to leave by another exit but insisted on being lowered to the ramp with the remains. She entered the ambulance and accompanied the body out of sight.

After President Johnson made his very short talk and departed, I remember thinking what irony that this terrible thing had to happen at all --- but to have it happen in the United States. Somehow it was still unbelievable.

JOHN C. TRIMBLE
MSGT, WHCA

The MO - How JFK Was Killed

The MO - How JFK Was Killed

The Divine Skein at Dealey Plaza – How JFK was killed and How they Got Away with It.

By William E. Kelly, Jr. (billkelly3@gmail.com)

PREFACE 

As my friends and associates well know, I have been studying the assassination of President Kennedy for many years, so the most frequently asked question I get from those who know this is, "Who killed JFK?," but I still can't answer that question.

While I am certain that the accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was not the lone gunman he has been portrayed to be, and I don't know the identities of those actually responsible for what happened at Dealey Plaza, I have, in the words of the Hollywood detective Lieutenant Peter Faulk Colombo, - "I don't know who committed the murder, but I figured out how they did it."

I got the MO down - the Modus Operandi - was that of a covert intelligence operation.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, a covert operation (covert ops) is "an operation that is so planned and executed as to conceal the identity of or permit plausible denial by the sponsor."

Major General Llewellyn W. Atcheriey - Developed the Modus Operandi - MO - system of maintenance of records and files of classifications and types of crimes and criminals.

Cornelius Francis Cahalane, in his book, The Policeman, wrote “The policeman, upon investigation of a crime in which he found a familiar mode of operation, would look up the records of various thieves who usually committed the crime in a like manner. If such a person were at large, and he had no promising leads in another direction, he eliminated all other suspects and confined his efforts to a scrutiny of the thieves who he knew from past experience used methods of operation similar to those used by the thief who committed the crime under investigation. Policeman who followed this system usually kept the information to themselves; some used a book, while others relied upon their memory. The need of spreading this information to all members of the Force, and of not confining it exclusively to the man making the investigation, prompted the compiling of a system by Major General Llewellyn W. Atcherley, Inspector of Constabulary, Office of the Home Secretary.”

“It is contended for this system that it tends to narrow the search by a process of elimination of those not known to the police, and of those who are known but who do not commit this certain crime, or, if so, have always committed it differently from the manner found in connection with the crime under investigation. This system is helpful in many instances, but too much reliance cannot be placed upon it. There are some instances where thieves have committed the same crime in the same way for years, or until caught and convicted,...This system is helpful, but not infallible….The big thing to be remembered By him is that the information he gathers is to be used as a comparison with other records on file...”

APPLYING THE MODUS OPERANDI SYSTEM TO DEALEY PLAZA

In applying Atcheriey's MO System to Dealey Plaza, the choice is pretty easy, and a very definite line in the sand - and that is whether the assassination of the President was the result of the impulsive, spontaneous actions of one Deranged Lone-Nut Case, whose individual psychosis should be classified in the realm of medical diagnosis, or was it a covert action, a pre-arranged plan that was meant be secret to protect the actual sponsors?

If the former, then we can all go home and let the psychiatrists and psychologists analysis the psychosis of a madman, and the assassination was disconnected to any of the political and historical activities of the day, while if the latter, the murder was connected to the political realities of the day, and therefor can be figured out.

But all of the evidence taken together strongly indicates that whatever happened at Dealey Plaza, the Modus Operandi of the crime was that of a covert intelligence operation, a Black Op designed to remain secret, planned in advance as an illegal act, conducted on a need to know basis using standard covert operational tradecraft and acted out so it was plausibly deniable by the actual sponsors.

Even if Lee Harvey Oswald was the Lone Sniper in the Sixth Floor Window and killed the President in line with the Single-bullet Theory, especially if Oswald was involved in any way, rather than the act of a Lone Mad Man, the assassination must be considered a covert intelligence operation - and investigated as such. 

While the Secret Service study of assassins tried to come up with a common diagnosis, they failed to recognize one specific type of assassin that Oswald fits – what I call the Covert Operative Personality (COP) profile. The COP profile is very specific, as those who fit this personality are trained by the military, usually the Marines, they are fluent in a foreign language, use Post Office boxes, keep an apartment separate from their families, and they utilize what Allen Dulles called the crafts and techniques of intelligence. Oswald sets the pattern for the COP personality but it also fits others such as Watergate burglars Frank Forini Sturgis and Eugenio Martinez, Gerry Patrick Hemming, Tosh Plumley and Felix Rodriguez, to name a few famous ones.

Whenever a COP profile personality is involved in an incident such as what happened at Dealey Plaza or Watergate, that incident should be assumed to be a covert intelligence operation and investigated as such.

The Modus Operandi behind the assassination of President Kennedy must be considered a covert intelligence operation because the facts of the case indicate that, including 1) There were individuals who expressed foreknowledge of the murder; 2) Many if not most of the principle characters were trained in covert intelligence operations, utilized tradecraft and had direct intelligence agency/network associations; 3) deception and traceable disinformation was utilized; 4) There were, as former Senator Richard Schweiker (R.Pa.) put it, "fingerprints of intelligence" all over the place.

As detailed in the study of the use of the Modus Operandi System, it is not perfect, and is only a tool of investigation that eliminates some and narrows down the number of suspects that should be investigated.

The MO System, when applied to Dealey Plaza, does not tell you who was responsible for the crime, but does provide a method for approaching the crime in a way that can lead to its resolution.

Because Covert Intelligence Operations are conducted in a specific way, and those characters involved were also involved in previous covert intelligence operations, both before and since Dealey Plaza, in Guatemala, Cuba, Iran, Vietnam and Chile, the players and suspects are identifiable if not already known.

Once you view what occurred at Dealey Plaza as an operation, a covert intelligence operation, it doesn't matter what Oswald's role was - lone gunman, co-conspirator or patsy.

Joshia Thompson, a first generation JFK researcher and longtime San Francisco private detective in the Sam Spade tradition, is the author of "Six Seconds in Dallas" and "Gumshoe," that details some of his exploits. Thompson once said that every case he worked on always had a point where a piece of evidence fit the bill, made the case come unraveled and led to its resolution, - except the Kennedy assassination.

Well, I think that point is being reached, not only by me, but by other researchers and writers whose work is coming together, as the previously hidden pieces of the puzzle fall into place, giving us a good picture of what really happened at Dealey Plaza.

I was very disenchanted when I first realized that the crime was not only a complex conspiracy but an even more unfathomable covert intelligence operation that was designed to deceive and remain hidden, and only become visible when they fail, and the Dealey Plaza Operation didn’t fail.  I became disenchanted because I realized that it would take an even more powerful counter-intelligence operation to determine the truth and seek some semblance of justice.

I knew the network responsible for the crime and was getting away with the murder of a president was much more powerful than me or any group I could put together, so I considered the resolution of this crime an unattainable possibility.

Now however, decades later, I can see it happening - the vision comes before reality.

The resolution of the assassination of President Kennedy - to a legal and moral certainty, is now attainable for three reasons - 1) the Power of the Internet gives us a network that makes all knowledge the significant information needed available to us; 2) The JFK Act of 1992 - as it is still in force, legally gives us access to all of the necessary records and evidence in the case; 3) the commitment and perseverance of a small number of very knowledgeable and dedicated independent researchers who are working on this case, many full time. Those three things together wield the power to overcome the intelligence network responsible for the Dealey Plaza operation.

We have the internet network, we have the JFK Act law behind us and we have a dedicated group of individuals who, if they work as a team, can identify, expose and take down the network that was responsible for what happened at Dealey Plaza that day.

As I have learned there two types of investigations - criminal investigations and counter-intelligence investigations. Criminal investigations are the kind the police and FBI routinely conduct, the purpose of which is to identify witnesses and evidence that can be introduced into a court of law in a criminal case. On the other hand an intelligence or counter-intelligence (CI) investigation does not need to abide by the laws of the land or what can and cannot be introduced in court as evidence, and can do whatever it must to determine the truth, including tap phones, search through trash, break and enter homes and offices to retrieve information and infiltrate the targets with undercover operatives.

In most CI cases there is no documentary trail mainly because top secret means and methods have been used to catch the culprit, and the case never goes to trial.

Just as Bill Simpich recognized that what happened at Dealey Plaza was a covert intelligence operation, and we must approach it and look at the assassination as such an operation, regardless of the role of the accused assassin.

Russ Baker says that his group of Baker Street Irregulars are conducting a Counter-Intelligence operation, and that's how we must perceive the unraveling of the truth of what happened in Dallas that day.

They - the Opposition, the intelligence network responsible for the assassination, conduct such CI operations all the time, sometimes against us.

The Dealey Plaza Clean-up crew reveal themselves sometimes - as they had infiltrated and compromised every major investigation criminal or otherwise, into their operations, including the Warren Commission, putting James Jesus Angleton as the point man for the CIA. Then there’s Dallas Police Department (Whose Special Services Division consisted mainly of US Army Reservists affiliated with the ACSI), the Secret Service, the FBI, the Dallas Grand Jury, the New Orleans Grand Jury, and the New Orleans District Attorney's office (recently released records show that one of the infiltrating agents was sent to Canada in the Witness Protection Program).

The New Orleans Grand Jury foreman was an informant, and while I don't know of the Church Committee investigation, I'm sure if you look at their internal office records you will find some suspicious persons, as many of their records are missing. But the clincher is the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) where former CIA officer George Joannides was called on to handle and compromise that investigation, and did so admirably.

So in a sense, as we consolidate our research and knowledge of the case, and prepare legal maneuvers, we won't have to go to them, eventually they will come to us.

PART ONE – THE DIVINE SKEIN AT DEALEY PLAZA

Former CIA director Allen Dulles brought a book with him to the first meeting of the Warren Commission.

"American Assassins" by Robert Donovan, portrayed most American political assassins as deranged lone nuts, as opposed to the more rational and ideological European assassins.

Donovan had previously wrote "PT 109," about President Kennedy's World War II exploits in the South Pacific that was made into a major motion picture, and his book on American assassins was popular at the time.

But Warren Commissioner John McCloy took exception to Dulles' suggestion that American assassins were all lone nut cases, pointing out the fact that Lincoln was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy, and a number of people were tried and hanged for their roles.

If Dulles was more interested in the truth rather than promoting the false suggestion that JFK was a victim of a deranged lone nut case, he would have passed around copies of his own then recently published book - "The Crafts of Intelligence," reportedly ghost written by Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt.

In his own book, Dulles details the means and methods used by intelligence networks, crafts that have been used for thousands of years, and as he explains, were first described in one of the oldest books known to man - Sun Tzu's "The Art of War."

In a chapter of "The Art of War" Sun Tzu describes the five different types of spies and secret agents - inside, native, living, double and expendable, each with a different role in the "skein," or net, a network of spies.

According to Sun Tzu, when all five types of agents are working in tandem together, they are "the treasure of the sovereign," and known as "The Divine Skein," - the Divine Net, as what they accomplish appears to be divine intervention and an act of God, unrecognizable by ordinary mortals who don’t know the trick or how the game is played.

Before JFK was killed a pamphlet was distributed in the Cuban community of Florida that said that an "Act of God" would put a Texan in the White House, a Texan who was friends of the Cuban people, one of dozens of black propaganda incidents that confirm the fact that whatever it is you believe as to what happened at Dealey Plaza, it was the result of a covert intelligence operation that utilized standard disinformation tactics to protect those actually responsible.

As Max Holland, in his book "The Assassination Tapes," quotes LBJ as saying that the assassination of JFK was "divine," implying it was an act of God, and LBJ was called the "accidental" president, as his murder was the result of a divine coincidence.

The head of French Intelligence once said that the assassination of President Kennedy was like a magic trick, complete with smoke and mirrors.

“President Kennedy's assassination was the work of magicians. It was a stage trick, complete with accessories and false mirrors, and when the curtain fell the actors and even the scenery, disappeared. But the magicians were not illusionist but professionals, artists in their own right.”

                 -    Attributed to French Intelligence officers – Philippe de Vosjoli or M. Andre Ducret –in “Fairwell America”

THE STING AT DEALEY PLAZA

General William Odom, the former head of the National Security Agency (NSA) and previously the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) of the US Army, said that the best covert operators are like the movie "The Sting."

In his book “Intelligence Wars – American Secret History from Hitler to Al-Qaeda,” Thomas Powers relates a story of how met General Odom, at a birthday party for retired intelligence officer Haviland Smith. As Smith's mentor General Odom was the former Army Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) and later the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) eavesdroppers, where he worked with former Army intelligence analyst John Newman.

Odom asked Powers, “Should the Army be trying to run agents at all?”

Well, since the CIA is not legally permitted to operate domestically in the United States, and the Army does, especially the National Guard, the Army was especially active running intelligence and undercover agents during the Civil Rights riots and against anti-Vietnam War activists. Since the Army does so, it’s a mute question of whether they should be doing it.

In the course of the party Thomas Powers asked Odom another question - “What makes a good case officer?”

Odom thought for a second and then answered the question with a question of his own: “Did you see that movie with Robert Redford and Paul Newman – The Sting?”

“That's it!” said Odom, “the con!”

The Big Con

Which clearly indicates that Odom took classes in covert intelligence operations with Paul Linebarger at the Center for International Studies.

The assassination of President Kennedy at Dealey Plaza was not an accident, not the act of a deranged loner nor a magic trick or an act of God, but rather was a very distinct and successfully executed covert intelligence operation, and pulling off a Big Con is how they did it.

The idea of the intelligence network - the means, methods and mechanisms of covert operations and the crafts of intelligence are now well known, though they weren't in 1963. Though people were aware of complex confidence games and how con artists work, and were leery of them, even though, as they say, “You can’t cheat an honest man.”

In fact such intelligence networks and covert operations are patterned on the Big Con confidence games of the early 20th century, as portrayed, as Odom suggests, in the movie "The Sting.”

In his book - “Portrait of a Cold Warrior,” Joseph Smith writes about the part of his training as a CIA agent that included taking classes with Professor Paul Linebarger, of the Center for International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. The classes on covert operational methods and techniques were taught at Linebarger’s home in Washington D.C.

Smith relates how Linebarger not only used his own classic text book “Psychological Warfare,” that delineates various levels of propaganda from white to black, with black being clearly though falsely identified as originating from the opposition.

Smith wrote: Black propaganda operations, by definition, are operations in which the source of the propaganda is disguised or misrepresented in one way or another so as not to be attributable to the people who really put it out. This distinguishes black from white propaganda, such as news bulletins and similar statements issued by one side in a conflict extolling its successes, of course, or other material just as clearly designed to serve the purposes of its identifiable authors….the United States was faced everywhere with an enemy that was using an untold array of black propaganda operations to undermine the nations of the world in order to present us with a fait accompli one fine morning when we would wake up to find all these countries under Communist control. Hence, it was vital to understand all about such operations from a defense standpoint if nothing else.

Paul Linebarger’s was a seminar in black propaganda only. He loved black propaganda operations probably because they involved the wit-sharpening he loved to talk about. Also, he was so good at them that his was one of the inventive minds that refined the entire black operations field into shades of blackness. Linebarger and his disciples decided that propaganda that was merely not attributable to the United States was not really black, only gray. To be called black it had to be something more…This left the term black propaganda for a very special kind of propaganda activity. Black propaganda operations were operations done to look like, and carefully labeled to be, acts of the Communist enemy.

Not only was the attribution given the source of the propaganda activity used as a criterion for defining what kind of propaganda it was, but equally important was the kind of message used…Black propaganda operations, being attributed to the enemy, naturally did not (support US policies). In fact, black propaganda, to be believable, supported the enemy’s positions and openly opposed those of the United States….

Besides classes in propaganda, Linebarger also had his students read David Maurer’s book “The Big Con,” also published as “The American Confidence Man,” that gave good insight into how case officers could run operatives and conduct successful covert operations.

David Maurer’s book, originally a linguistic text on the unique language and slang of thieves, con artists and confidence men, led Maurer to uncover and detail the inner workings of the Big Con, and that was the basis of the script for the movie “The Sting,” as referenced by Odom.

Just as linguist David Maurer learned the secrets of the Big Con through the study of the unique language of the con artists, we can only learn the means and methods of the covert operators by learning the terminology they use in crafting their covert operations - the Lingo of Dealey Plaza.

As Smith wrote: “I want you all to go out and get a copy of David Maurer’s classic on the confidence man. It’s called ‘The Big Con,’ and its available now in a paperback edition,” Paul continued. “That little book will teach you more about the art of covert operations than anything else I know.”

“Your job and the confidence man’s are almost identical…Of course, your motives and those of the confidence men are different. He wants to fleece his mark out of his money. You want to convince a Chinese, Filipino,…a Thai, that what you want him to believe or do for the good of the U.S. government is what he thinks he himself really believes and wants to do.”

“Maurer’s book will give you a lot of ideas on how to recruit agents, how to handle them and how to get rid of them peacefully when they’re no use to you any longer. Believe me, that last one is the toughest job of all.”

"We were all soon reading 'The Big Con,' The tales it told did, indeed, contain a lot of hints on how to do our jobs. For me one sentence seemed to sum it all up beautifully, “The big-time confidence games,” wrote Maurer, “are in reality only carefully rehearsed plays in which every member of the cast EXCEPT THE MARK knows his part perfectly.” 

He had two leading operational heroes whose activities formed the basis for lessons he wished us to learn and whose examples he thought we should follow. One was Lt. Col. Edward G. Lansdale, the OPC station chief in Manila, and the other was E. Howard Hunt, the OPC station chief in Mexico City. Both of them had what is called “black minds,” and the daring to defy bureaucratic restraints in thinking up and executing operations. He had a number of stories to tell about the exploits of both….

 A note of caution that Linebarger added to these discussions of black operations sounds like a bell down the years. He would explain, after someone had come up with an especially clever plan for getting the Communists completely incriminated in an exceedingly offensive act, that there should be limits to black activities.

“I hate to think what would ever happen,” he once said with a prophet’s voice, “if any of you ever got out of this business and got involved in U.S. politics. These kinds of dirty tricks must never be used in internal U.S. politics. The whole system would come apart.” 

Well these kinds of dirty tricks were used before Watergate, including what happened at Dealey Plaza, and the whole system came apart.

The Argot of Dealey Plaza - How to define and talk about what happened there.

It now should be established and accepted as a fact that the Modus Operandi (MO) of the assassination of President Kennedy was not that of a deranged loner, but rather that of a covert intelligence operation.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, a covert operation (covert ops) is "an operation that is so planned and executed as to conceal the identity of or permit plausible denial by the sponsor."

Just as David Maurer learned the peculiar language of the confidence men and con artists before he understood the inter working mechanisms of the Big Con "Sting," we have to decipher and learn the intelligence terminology of the covert action operators to come to an understanding of the Dealey Plaza Operation.

David Maurer: “Over a period of years I have explored the secret and semi-secret communications system of professional criminals…Very early I discovered that the technical language of criminals, which is called ‘argot,’ cannot be studied in terms of language alone. These speech-systems have to be viewed in light of the subcultures which produced them….In other words, before one can write about criminal argot, he must learn how professional criminals live…”

One of the unique attributes of covert intelligence tradecraft is to give the mission an operational code name - the 1954 Guatemalan coup was Operation Success, and while those few who planned it used another name, I refer to it as the Dealey Plaza Operation (DPO).

Because, as we have learned from Joseph Smith and Paul Linebarger, some of the psych war and covert intelligence operational techniques developed by the Army and CIA came from the criminal underworld, whose argot was chronicled by linguist David Maurer, some of the terminology as well as techniques are interchangeable.

Just as the Big Con games had the Inside Man, the star of the show, the covert operators had their Inside Men, Outside Men, Spotters, Ropers, Fixers and the Big Store itself.

As in the Big Con Sting, the Inside Men are the best of the lot and run the show. CIA men such as Allen Dulles, Ted Shackley, Desmond Fitzgerald and Richard Helms were the best Inside Men, and they had their Big Store - JMWAVE.

The largest CIA station in the world at the time - at the University of Miami, went by the cover of Zenith Technological Enterprises, as US Army Ranger Bradley Ayers describes in his books "The War that Never Was" and "The Zenith Secret."

As Ayers describes it, they set it up just like the Big Con artists set up a Big Store as a fake gambling joint or stock broker's office.

 "Monday morning we met the station chief, Ted Shackley," Ayers wrote. "As we sat in his outer office, waiting a little nervously, I saw they had missed no detail in setting up the false front of Zenith Technological Enterprises. There were phony sales and production charts on the walls and business licenses from the state and federal governments. A notice to salesman, pinned near the door, advised them of the calling hours for various departments. The crowning touch was a certificate of award from the United Givers' Fund to Zenith for outstanding participation in the annual fund drive."

The Inside Man, like Paul Newman's Gondorf in "The Sting," must be a good actor and polished professional with charisma, as Ted Shackley and Desmond Fitzgerald clearly fit that persona.

The Inside Men seldom leave the office, and handle administrative and bureaucratic affairs as well as devising the game plans and pulling the strings of the street operators, that he does through his Outside Men - the covert operators, case officers and their agents and assets.

Gordon Campbell, the mysterious JMWAVE chief of Maritime activities (until he died), once told Ayers, "The fewer people out there (at a remote training base) the better....My Outside Man Karl will help you with logistics..."

The Outside Men are a bit more crude and street wise than the prim and polished Inside Men. Guys like William Harvey, David Morrales and George Joanedes dealt directly with the Cubans and mobsters, and utilized many of the same techniques as well as the lingo of Con artists. 

Codes, ciphers, false flags, black propaganda and putting in the fix are utilized by both the con artists and covert operators, so an understanding of one gives insight into the other, as Paul Linebarger taught his psych war students.

Acronyms, aliases, pseudonyms, code names and ciphers are all keys that must be deciphered and understood before you can even begin to read many of the CIA cables and memos that use them.

Lists of such items that have been deciphered by veteran researchers like John Newman, Bill Simpich, Malcolm Blunt, Larry Hancock, Jerry Shinley and Rex Bradford are filed at the Mary Farrell web site where many of the released records are also posted on line for easy access.

As Malcolm Blunt recently noted: “Better we should look at the documents being released and work on what I’m sure to most is irrelevant minutiae. Although most of these releases are going to be absolutely meaningless to Post and Times reporters, really we are being given missing pages from an incomplete dictionary. Agency cryptonyms, pseudonyms, internal systems and management. Very valuable.”

CIA Cryptonyms at Mary Ferrell:  https://www.maryferrell.org/php/cryptdb.php

Glossary and Acronyms: Glossary and Acronyms — Central Intelligence Agency

Spy Museum Language of Espionage: Language of Espionage · International Spy Museum

Urban Dictionary: CIA Urban Dictionary: CIA

MLK at Mary's Cafe - As the Story Unfolds

MLK at Mary's Café and Camden - By William Kelly


753 Walnut Street, Camden, N.J.

Atlanta, Selma, Birmingham and Memphis are all places that are associated with Martin Luther King, Jr.; But Maple Shade and Camden, New Jersey were not, until now.

In June 1950, a young seminary student named Michael King signed his name to a legal complaint against a Maple Shade, New Jersey bar owner for refusing to serve him and listed his legal residence as 753 Walnut Street, Camden.

More than 65 years later, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Camden residence has been saved from demolition—thanks in large part to the efforts of local car salesman Patrick Duff, an amateur historian who documented of the home’s historic significance. The two-story, attached house in one of Camden’s most blighted neighborhoods was to be razed; instead, the city has given the house historic designation and a movement is afoot to restore the structure and turn it into a civil rights museum.

King lived on and off in the nondescript Camden house from 1950 to 1951, while attending Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania.

His Camden residency had been all-but forgotten until Duff, investigating an unrelated matter, happened upon the legal complaint signed by the future Civil Rights leader following the June 1950 incident in nearby Maple Shade.

Duff’s first clue was a newspaper article describing how King and his Camden roommate, fellow Crozer student Walter McCall, and two other individuals were refused service and at gun point were tossed out of Mary’s Place, a Maple Shade bar on what is now a Route 73 clover leaf. King and his companions went to the local police station and filed a civil complaint against the owner of the bar Ernest Nichols, a German born immigrant who had served in the German army during World War I and was married to Mary, who gave the bar its name.

It is believed the Maple Shade incident is the first time King took legal action in the name of civil rights. Renown Camden doctor Wiggins, and a NAACP lawyer and Camden prosecutor helped King pursue the case, which was dismissed after the bar owner pleaded guilty to one of the two charges and paid a small fine. Nichols was represented by a well-known Burlington County lawyer whose obituary mentions the incident. While King was not famous at the time, the lawyer said he heard King respond to the question of why he made civil rights a part of his ministry by saying the incident in New Jersey sparked his interest in the issue.

Mary’s Place was purchased by the New Jersey Department of Transportation and torn down several years ago, but through Duff’s efforts, an historic marker will be placed at the site.

As for the Walnut Street house, Duff’s research led him to Jeannette Hunt, a cousin of McCall’s and the current owner of the now boarded-up building, once owned by her father-in-law. She recalls King and her uncle Walter McCall living in an upstairs room at the house when she was a little girl.

Armed with the legal documents and news clippings, Duff sought to convince the city that the house should be preserved. His work got the attention of Camden mayor Dana Redd and local Congressman Donald Norcross, both of whom wrote letters to the state requesting the historical designation. John Lewis, a Congressman from Georgia and a close friend and associate of King’s, also expressed support. All three spoke at a press conference in September 2017 in front of the house calling for its preservation. 

“This place of historic real estate must be saved for generations unborn,” said Lewis. “Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t just help change America; he helped change the world.”

The New Jersey state Senate passed a resolution 36-0 urging the home be placed on the state historic registry; the city of Camden gave the house the historic designation needed to obtain the funds to restore it; and the Coopers Ferry Partnership assumed title of the property to ensure its preservation. The attention also led to the cleanup of Walnut Street and the clearing of an adjacent lot. “It looks like a different street,” says Duff, somewhat bewildered that his hard work is bearing fruit.

Since then the Coopers Ferry Partnership received a six figure grant to work on the property, but never announced it or used it, and state gave Stockton University over $20,000 to study the facts and determine if MLK actually lived in Camden at all.

In the meantime the roof of 753 Walnut was falling in and some neighbors fixed it on their own.

Then the Stockton "study" failed to interview any living witnesses and only reviewed the published literature and what Duff had sent them. They concluded that the lack of any published references to King's time in Camden went against the possibility of him living there as a residence, but given all the known facts that he stayed there is the most probable alternative. Not a great endorsement that would enhance the NJ state historical certification needed.

Then Duff located yet another newspaper article from the 1980s that quotes one of the residents of 753 Walnut, a young man at the time who had joined the Army, who said that it was his bedroom in the back of the second floor where King and his cousin lived while he was away in the service.

In fact, it was the day he returned in June 1950 when King said they were going to a place in Maple Shade for something to eat, a place known for its good sandwiches. The returning vet warned King not to go as blacks were not welcome there, but King replied, "We have to change that so we can go anywhere."

So this newly discovered report, not included in the Stockton study, clearly indicates King and his friends didn't just stumble on Mary's Place, as was previously assumed, they went there expecting they would be denied service, and were prepared to do something about it.

Now the city of Camden, the state of New Jersey, Stockton University and Coopers Ferry Partnerships should end their hesitation to move on this and properly designate the property as historical, budget the money to restore and preserve the building, and establish the civil rights museum and center that deserves to be there.

— William E. Kelly