HEMMING told this researcher that he was at home on November 22, 1963, when he heard the news of President Kennedy's death on his radio. He said he rode to the Miami News building with Alan Kennedy where he saw editor William Baggs (deceased), "a confidant of the Kennedys who was their local eyes and ears on CIA activities." HEMMING told this researcher: "I was sure as hell making sure I had an alibi. I was over to MARTINO'S house that night. He's askin' me stuff. I said, 'I ain't gonna tell you shit.'" HEMMING stated that HARGRAVES was "in Miami, with his nagging wife, under surveillance," on November 22, 1963.

HEMMING told this researcher: "O'Conner came by himself, which he was prone to do, because there weren't that many people working his division, which was agents. O'Conner focused on Castro agents, KGB's and all that kind of bullshit. O'Conner came by and said Dywer and a couple of other guys are gonna be coming by and 'What do you think? Do you think any of the Miami people could have been involved in this?' I said 'I ain't got a fucking clue. There's weird shit that happens, but I ain't got a fucking clue.' He said, 'When they come by they're probably not gonna ask you too much shit anyway, I wouldn't volunteer anything.' Well they know that I'm the one that has his fingers on every fucking move that's going on."

HEMMING 1994: "The FBI came by my place after the assassination and asked nine questions in a hurry, and got the fuck out of there. They asked: 'What did you have for breakfast? What did you have for lunch?' They didn't ask where I was when the big event happened. Basically, in a roundabout way, 'Can you think of anything that could help in this business about Kennedy in Dallas?' Skirting the issues. They gave me a message by the nature of the fucking questions, to keep my mouth shut. They pointedly did not ask me my alibi. That was a month after the assassination. That was the last time I talked to the FBI. After the assassination, nobody in the group discussed any bullshit, and there was nobody asking no questions. We didn't discuss it. When there were arguments and shit, a guy would blurt out something. I would tell him to shut his goddamn face. That's what caused them guys to think I was in on the son-of-a-bitch. So what are they gonna do then? They're gonna keep their fucking mouths shut. They figure I'm a goddamn ringleader on the assassination of a President. This is what has carried through my connections for the last 30 years. All these intelligence assholes figure that's what it was. We divorced the Kennedy thing from our memories until the Garrison thing came up in 1967."

On December 16, 1963, HEMMING was "interviewed in connection with another investigation and advised that he is interested in setting up, maintaining and operating military training camps for Cuban exiles. HEMMING advised that he has been active in the Cuban revolutionary activities for the past four years and is in frequent contact with the leaders of Commandos L." [FBI Analysis of 2.68 Ramparts article by William Turner] On December 16, 1963, HEMMING "was interviewed in connection with another matter. Incidental to this interview, HEMMING advised he is currently unemployed, is not operating any military training camps for Cuban exiles at the present time; and that his organization, INTERPEN, has six members, but is inactive. HEMMING explained he continues to maintain contact with persons active in Cuban Revolutionary matters; still is interested in working toward overthrowing Communism in Cuba; and is still closely following U.S. Government policy concerning Cuba. HEMMING stated he has interviewed Cubans recently having defected from Cuba; he has ascertained a considerable amount regarding Cuban radar defenses; knows which corridors are currently open; but has not considered making this information available to the United States Government." [FBI 2-1693-97 pgs. 1-3 w/h] On December 31, 1963, the FBI generated a highly deleted document concerning HEMMING and Alexander Rorke. [FBI HQ 2-1693-97 pgs. 1-3 w/h] When the HSCA checked HEMMING'S CIA file, there was only one document generated in 1963. On December 31, 1963, the FBI produced a Letter Head Memorandum on HEMMING that was still mostly withheld. [FBI 2-1693-97]

HEMMING told this researcher: "I was in ANGLETON'S home after the assassination. He ain't got Secret Service parked in his driveway. We didn't discuss a goddamned thing. I wondered if the fucker would answer the door considering what I was feeling at that time. And then, when I called back from New Orleans, when I was out there with Garrison for a couple of days and I called back to D.C. and talked to a couple of other parties, I figured they were going to hang up the phone." HEMMING said he had seen ANGLETON in March 1963 and again in January or February 1964. HEMMING said he told him he was "shutting the motherfucker down."

During a pre-trial hearing concerning the No Name Key bust, HARGRAVES accused Wallace Shanley of being responsible for the death of two or three Cubans who had been infiltrated into Cuba, because the weapons he had seized at No Name Key, were destined for these men. [CIA 201-309125 11.964] On June 26, 1964, a 12 member jury decided in Miami Federal Court that HEMMING and his crew should regain possession of the arms, confiscated December 4, 1963, at Marathon Key.

On September 11, 1964, the FBI generated a document about HEMMING that contained information from a Secret report from the Department of the Army: "In as much as HEMMING'S future activities appear likely to be with INTERPEN, the Miami Subject file on HEMMING is being placed in a closed status." [FBI HQ 105-86406-18 pages 1A, 2 - 6, 15 -16 . 19, 20,21, 25, 29, 30 w/h] This document, which was 30 pages long, dealt with HEMMING'S activities in Castro's Cuba, INTERPEN, GERRY HEMING'S connection to William Morgan, HEMING'S connection to the Sandinistas, HEMMING'S connection to the anti-Communist Legionnaires, the numerous newspaper articles about HEMMING, FRANK STURGIS, Rolando Masferrer, HEMMING'S fund raising trip to Los Angeles, HEMMING'S No Name Key bust, Customs violations, the search for Rorke etc. A copy of this document was sent to G-2, Fort McPherson, Georgia, and to the United States Secret Service "Regarding protecting President of U.S."

HEMMING 1994: "I was back on active duty with the Army Special Forces in August 1964. No one interviewed me in September 1964. I went to Fort Benning, Georgia, in November 1964." HEMMING'S "Department of the Army and Air Force National Guard Bureau, Report of Separation and Record of Service in the Army National Guard of Florida and as a Reserve of the Army" Discharge Certificate indicated that in early October 1964 HEMMING entered the Special Forces Group Augmented of the U.S. Army Reserve. On December 2, 1964, HEMMING was in Fort Benning, Georgia, where he took a Basic Airborne Course. When HEMMING'S tour of duty ended on April 13, 1967, he was 6' 6" tall and weighed 256 pounds. He listed his occupation as "ironworker."

On August 28, 1963, J. Lee Rankin asked J. Edgar Hoover to resolve the contradictions arising from the Odio incident. J. Edgar Hoover suggested that his Field Offices work the 'mental illness' angle, in order to discredit Sylvia Odio: "In light of Sylvia Odio's mental and nervous condition Bureau believes that the most productive method of disproving her allegation lies in investigation to develop further specifics concerning her mental status..." [FBI 105-82555-4743] The FBI re-interviewed Sylvia Odio, but she did not change her story. [WCE 3147] The FBI interviewed her brother. [FBI 105-82555-4868] On September 8, 1964, the FBI re-interviewed Manolo Ray and Rogelio Cisneros. On September 11, 1964, the FBI generated four reports on HEMMING - Letter Head Memorandum's re: (Deleted) GERALD PATRICK HEMMING et. al." On September 15, 1964, "MM informant advised that Loran Hall and William Houston Seymour visited Dallas in October 1963 to collect money donations under guise of representing anti-Castro organization." On September 15, 1964, the FBI attempted to procure the photographs of Loran Hall and William Houston Seymour taken by the Dallas Police Department when they were arrested for possession of dangerous drugs in Dallas on October 17, 1963.

On September 16, 1964, the FBI located Loran Eugene Hall. Loran Hall told the FBI that in late September 1963, he was in Dallas with LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD and William Houston Seymour. He contacted three professors at the University of Dallas. He said that Kiki Ferrer, who lived on Magellan Circle, introduced him to a Cuban woman. Later the three of them went to her apartment on Magellan Circle. Loran Hall told the FBI: "He said he seemed to recognize this woman's name as Odio because of the association with the name of the Cuban professor who had the same name (Odio)." Loran Hall said this visit occurred two days after he arrived in Dallas. He went to ask her assistance in the anti-Castro Movement. The visit was brief and he did not think he went into her apartment. Loran Hall "explained that it now occurs to him that William Seymour is a person who might be said to generally resemble OSWALD." J. Edgar Hoover later suggested that Sylvia Odio may have mistaken the name LEE HARVEY OSWALD for Loran Eugene Hall because "there is some phonetic resemblance."

On September 17, 1964, the FBI in Miami advised the Director that Miami files contained no photographs of Loran Hall, LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD or William Houston Seymour. The FBI: "Miami will attempt to obtain such photographs from GERALD PATRICK HEMMING, Miami, who is associated with them." [FBI 105-82555-4886] The Dallas Police Department reported no photographs were available. The FBI found a picture of Loran Hall after going through HEMMING'S file - the two had been photographed by newspaper reporters during a visit to Dallas.

HEMMING 1995: "Now they went to that address and Kiki Ferrer was the guy that talked to LARRY HOWARD. Hall was trying to locate Rogelio Cisneros' buddy by the name of Naico Crespi, Camillo Cienfuegos' number four guy who, when Camillo got it, got the fuck out of Cuba. He lived on Magellan Circle. That was his mailing address. So when he moved to Fort Worth this Kiki Ferrer friend/snitch who was spying on Naico Crespi was the Cuban they were sent to. LARRY HOWARD didn't know that I knew Niaco Crespi. Loran Hall didn't know. The FBI did, because Niaco Crespi was a suspected Castro agent. Who did they have spying on him? Another suspected Castro agent, Kiki Ferrer. Niaco Crespi was in the country illegally, he never got his parole card."

On September 18, 1964, the FBI questioned William Houston Seymour. He said he never heard of Sylvia Odio, nor had he visited an apartment on Magellan Circle in Dallas. He said he worked for a welding firm during the period in question. The employer of William Houston Seymour confirmed this.

On September 20, 1964, the FBI interviewed LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD. He was employed at the I.T.E. Circuit Breaker Company, East Los Angeles. He told the FBI he never heard the name Odio before, nor did he recall having visited any Cuban women during his visit to Dallas with Loran Hall. The FBI reported "The New Orleans States Item, Red Flash Edition, of January 11, 1968, quoted that LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD Jr. had said he was working in Los Angeles on November 22, 1963, and that he has never registered at the Dallas YMCA. The article quoted that HOWARD said, 'There is no information at all that I can that would in anyway uncover anything. I gave a statement to the FBI and as far as they were concerned I was cleared. I have no knowledge of any conspiracy concerning the assassination of President Kennedy. I think they are interested in me because I helped train guerilla forces for a proposed invasion of Cuba.'" HEMMING told this researcher: "HOWARD wouldn't be caught dead in the YMCA. He slept in the car. The FBI went to con LARRY HOWARD. HOWARD, who's still on the government payroll, says I ain't gonna lie to save somebody's ass. This didn't happen. HOWARD thought Wally Welch's secretary was the one they were talkin about. He doesn't know from Sylvia fuckin' Odio. Then they tell him she's Cuban and she speaks Spanish he really went through the fucking roof 'cause she's a Caucasian with a Texas accent."

The FBI re-interviewed Loran Hall on September 20, 1964. He reported he had been "in error" about many things during his previous interview. First, he had never met Sylvia Odio. Secondly, William Houston Seymour and LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD had traveled to Dallas with him on separate occasions. During the visit to Dallas in question, Loran Hall had been with LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD and Celio Sergio. Finally, although Loran Hall still maintained that Kiki Ferrer had introduced him to a Cuban woman, it was not in front of her apartment building on Magellan Circle, and the woman was not Sylvia Odio. Loran Hall told the HSCA he had changed his story after the FBI displayed a photograph of Sylvia Odio to him: "I looked at the picture and studied the picture and I stated at that time, 'No, I definitely have never met Mrs. Odio.'"

On September 21, 1964, J. Edgar Hoover sent J. Lee Rankin a report on the Odio incident based solely on the first interview of Loran Hall. J. Edgar Hoover: "It appears now to point to a near certainty that Hall, an erratic anti-Castroite, with his associates William Houston Seymour and LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD, were the men who visited Sylvia Odio." [WCE 3146; FBI Hoover to Rankin 9.21.64] On September 24, 1964, the Warren Report was released. It stated: "Loran Hall has been identified as a participant in numerous anti-Castro activities. He said he had visited Mrs. Sylvia Odio. He was accompanied by LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD, a Mexican-American from East Los Angeles, and one William Houston Seymour from Arizona. He stated that William Houston Seymour is similar in appearance to OSWALD; he speaks only a few words of Spanish, as Mrs. Sylvia Odio had testified one of the men who visited her did. While the FBI has not yet completed its investigation into this matter at the time the report went to press, the Commission has concluded that OSWALD was not at Mrs. Sylvia Odio's apartment in September 1963."

Celio Castro was interviewed by the FBI on September 26, 1964. He advised "that the American woman with the 17 year old daughter, who was visited in Dallas by Loran Hall and LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD is a friend of JERRY PATRICK. JERRY PATRICK is identical with GERALD PATRICK HEMMING...The Miami Office will interview PATRICK in an effort to determine the contacts of Loran Hall and LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD while in Dallas, Texas, during September 1963, in particular the identity of the American woman with the 17 year old daughter, the American employed in a Dallas Bank with whom Loran Hall and LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD left the trailer containing the equipment, and the identity of the Cuban woman who Loran Hall and LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD attempted to contact during an afternoon visit, but who was not home at the time." [FBI 105-82555-5016]

On September 28, 1964, while the FBI was in touch with HEMMING about the Odio incident, HEMMING murdered INTERPEN member Edward A. Collins.

Miami Police records indicated Edward A. Collins was involved in "selling guns and explosives to Cuban exiles." In October 1963 Edward A. Collins stole a boat from which anti-Castro transmissions were beamed to Cuba from outside U.S. waters. In 1977, HEMMING said that in 1963 Edward A. Collins experienced, "delusions of grandeur" and attempted to form a united front of right-wing groups that would have included Cuban exiles, the Ku Klux Klan, the National States Rights Party and others. HEMMING told this researcher: "Collins was working with Harber around this time. He was keeping a low profile because he knew that it would annoy the hell out of me if he tried to branch out. Of course he was fairly active in 1963. That's what cost him his life in 1964. We would keep track of what he was doing so he didn't go off and do something crazy and we end up with another goddamn Loran Hall type situation. Branching out. Doing crazy shit. Taking some of our people along for the ride. Before Collins died we've already got the information as to what the fuck he's doing."

HEMMING told Edward A. Collins to accompany him aboard a small craft they had rented from Russell Wilkey, a charter boat captain. According to Miami Police and City of Miami reports, Russell Wilkey, Steve Justin Wilson, HEMMING and Edward A. Collins were out at sea when Edward A. Collins allegedly "dived off the sailboat to retrieve a drifting dingy. This was the last time he was seen alive." City of Miami, Florida, Inter-Office Memorandum

Lt. H. Swilly, Intelligence Unit,

From Gus Zenoz, P/officer Intelligence Unit

Date October 20, 1964,

References W/M Edward A. Collins 29 years 1925 S.W. 4th Street

On September 28, 1964, Subject went sailing with Russell Wilkey 47 years (owner of sailboat) and two other men, names unknown. According to Russell they were in the Dinner Key boat channel when Collins dived off the sailboat to retrieve a drifting dingy. That was the last time they saw him alive. On September 29, 1964, Perry Nichols Jr. 18 years, discovered the underwear clad corpse (Subject) about 4:15 p.m. Nichols, a high school student, had been out on the family boat. Writer has learned that Subject, at the time of his death, had been very actively locally selling explosives and guns to the Cuban groups. An informer told writer that he had been out boat riding with Subject and that he was not the type who would jump in the ocean especially at night. Informer who was very friendly with Subject thinks that he was probably killed. Writer thinks it might be a good idea to find out who the other two men in the boat were and to check them out. They might be the ones involved in the theft of dynamite for September 19, 1964, from Jack Allen Austin Powder Company, 11200 S.W. Court.

Seymour Gelber of the City of Miami, Florida, stated: "Further investigation reveals that on September 28, 1964, Collins was sailing with three other men when he attempted to retrieve a dingy boat when he drowned. The three men with him at the time were as follows: GERALD PATRICK HEMMING, 1036 S.W. 5th St. Apt. 2, Miami, Florida (You will remember this man popping up in our recent inquiry). Steve Justin Wilson, 1925 S.W. 4th Street, Miami, Florida (we have no information on this individual) and these are old addresses on both men. Russell Wilkey, address unknown. Edward Anderson Collins only arrest here in Miami was only for 'drunk.'Collins listed his occupation as Marine Surveyor. Medical examiners report shows that he died by drowning. Attached you will find a picture of Collins. He is well known to our Customs men here."[Ltr. Gelber to Fensterwald 8.13.68; Miami Police Report 9.29.64, 9.20.64] Seymour Gelber, the author of one of these reports, was Assistant Attorney General for the State of Florida from 1962 to 1963. By 1976 he was a Florida State judge. Russell Wilkey, was born November 28, 1918, and died in August 1982.

On May 8, 1968, HEMMING told, Steve Burton, an investigator for New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, that Edward A. Collins and Enrique Molina (a Castro spy) were in Dallas during November 1963. (When HEMMING disliked someone, he put them in Dallas around the time of the Kennedy assassination.) When a Freedom of Information Act request was filed for the records of Edward A. Collins, the Bureau stated: "Eighteen pages were reviewed and were withheld in their entirety, with no segregable material available for release...13 pages out of the 18 had been referred to the CIA as the information originated with them...CIA advised that all of its information should be denied in its entirety..." [FBI ltr. 5.15.79 Bresson/AJ] Wallace Shanley commented, "Collins was a guy that ate dog food."

In 1977 HEMMING was asked about the death of Edward A. Collins: "Shit, he didn't die in no accident. He was keelhauled by a bunch of left-wingers!" HEMMING 1994: "Collins was a very simple guy. We liked to fight a lot and argue. But he was a real joker. He decided to infiltrate this peace march that was going to march to Key West, get on some boats, then go to Havana and march to Guantanamo Naval Base. He fell in with those people, and he was working for the FBI when he did it. Off Dinner Key he supposedly jumped off the boat that these peace people were going to take to Havana, to recover a dingy that had come loose in the night in eight feet of water, and he drowned. I went to identify the body. Steve Justin Wilson and I were not on the boat with him. When he drowns the FBI figures, 'Holy shit, their careers are on the line. They got him killed.' The FBI questioned me about it. Russell Wilkey was a peacenik and a U.S. Customs informant. We were not on the boat with him. We went and interrogated the guys on the boat severely. We didn't hurt them too bad. We wanted know what the hell was going on? How an excellent swimmer, who had just been on a boat a few months before that blew up off Cuba, could drown? The City of Miami report is bullshit. They made a mistake. We looked him over close on the slab." HEMMING was asked why there was no mention of the peace cruise in the media, and why it was not in any Miami Police or Miami City report. HEMMING told this researcher: "The people on that boat were not overtly connected with the peace march. We thought Collins was trying to steal the boat. Listen to what I say instead of wasting your goddamn time on bullshit! What are you fucking sparring with me or something? Or is this game just to waste time? I ain't got fucking time to waste."

The Quebec - Washington - Guantanamo walk for peace took place in August 1963. Robert K. Brown stated: "Dick Billings of Life believes that Collins was in Dallas on or about November 17, 1963. As he recalls there is a letter from Collins which would place him in Dallas at this time. Robert K. Brown suggests we might want to talk to one Bobby Willis. Said Collins drowned off Miami in a fishing incident. He was a superb swimmer and some question has been raised about his death. However, Robert K. Brown has heard that Collins and his companions had been drinking heavily on this occasion." [Fensterwald interview with Robert K. Brown 7.17.68]

There was no way to question Steve Justin Wilson. HEMMING reported Steve Justin Wilson was "having mental problems - dope. He shot up an apartment, suicidal, and all kinds of shit. I sent him to Guatemala to see Cokie Zimeri in 1975. Zimeri had a caterpillar tractor plowing the bodies into the ground. He headed the death squad and more than that. He wasn't prepared for this, and had to return two weeks later. He died in 1984 of a heart attack. He was 48. I got the autopsy report on it. He blew out a thin wall on his heart. Drug usage."

On October 1, 1964, the FBI displayed photographs of Loran Hall, LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD and William Houston Seymour to Sylvia Odio. She denied that these were the men who visited her. On October 2, 1964, the SAC Miami reported:

To: Director

From: SAC Miami

Subject: OSWALD

Re Dallas airtels to Bureau September 22, 1964 and September 24, 1964 forwarding to Miami photos of William Houston Seymour, JOHN LAWRENCE HOWARDS and Lorand Eugene Hall for exhibit to Sylvia Odio, who recently moved from Dallas to Miami.

With respect for the photographs of William Houston Seymour received from Dallas, the following is noted - one of the William Houston Seymour photographs was taken by Key West, Florida, Sheriff's Office on December 4, 1962, a second photograph of William Houston Seymour was taken by San Diego, California, Police Department in March 1959. The Bureau, by teletype dated September 16, 1964, to Kansas City, Miami and San Diego, instructed Miami to obtain the photograph of William Houston Seymour, Key West Sheriff's office. Since the Key West and San Diego photographs of William Houston Seymour appear to be of two different individuals (Deleted) [Howard K. Davis or HEMMING] Potential Security Informant (Under Development) Miami, who is acquainted with William Houston Seymour, was contacted on September 30, 1964. (Deleted) identified the San Diego photographs as that of William Houston Seymour and he identified the Key West Sheriff's Department photograph as that of Ronald Ponce De Leon. He advised that Ronald Ponce De Leon may presently be in the U.S. Army, possible in Korea. The discrepancy on William Houston Seymour photographs will be brought to the attention of the Identification Division by separate communication.

The photographs described in Letter Head Memorandum, shown on October 1, 1964, to Sylvia Odio were shown together with photographs of Ronald Ponce De Leon and Miami Beach Florida Police Department photographs #A 24590 and #A 35771.

In Miami Letter Head Memorandum and cover letter dated September 26, 1964, Celio Castro described an American man in Dallas with whom Loran Hall and LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD left their trailer of equipment. LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD said Loran Hall visited an American woman in Dallas who had a 17 year old daughter.

During contact on September 30, 1964, PSI (Deleted) advised that the American male is very probably Lester Logue, a geologist with the firm Logue and Patterson, Meadows Building, Dallas. He said the American woman is probably Gloria Kouthart, who lives in the Dorchester House at St. Joseph Street and the corner of a main thoroughfare in Dallas.

Interview of Sylvia Odio on October 1, 1964, was conducted by S.A.'s Leman Stafford and James O'Conner: she was cordial, expressed her desire to cooperate, and although apparently a tense individual, gave no sign of being discomforted by the interview.

Further interview of Odio in an effort to resolve her claim of visit by OSWALD, is not contemplated by Miami and will be conducted only upon request from the Bureau or Dallas. [FBI Serial illegible]

Was the above the interview of HEMMING regarding photographs of Loran Hall and William Houston Seymour that was suggested by the FBI after having interviewed Celio Castro? In 1995 HEMMING claimed Steve Justin Wilson was the snitch. He said that Gloria Kouthart worked for Wally Welch as his secretary. If Steve Justin Wilson was the snitch, HEMMING could have fed him the information. HEMMING linked Loran Hall, LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD and William Houston Seymour to Sylvia Odio. HEMMING was behind the Odio incident.

The SSCIA attempted to determine what had prompted the FBI to question Loran Hall about Sylvia Odio by questioning Leon F. Brown, the FBI S.A. who conducted the interview with Loran Hall: "During the personal interview, William Triplett inquired extensively as to the basis for the interview with Loran Hall. He asked as to the source of the request for the interview with Loran Hall; information furnished to Agent Leon F. Brown for the purpose of interview; by what means request was received at the field office and from whom; by what means, and by whom, instructions and background information were given to Leon F. Brown; and with what urgency the matter was handled. Before Committee, same area was explored. Question was made as to whether the request for the interview received immediate response, whether leads in this case were being handled immediately during that period of time, and if it was normal to handle leads expeditiously in an investigation which had been going on for as long as this investigation...In both interrogations William Triplett inquired about the procedure followed in reporting results of the interview. Inquiry was made as to whom, if anyone, any (sic) telephone report of results by Leon F. Brown to the field office would have been made. He asked for an explanation as to why both reports were transcribed in final form on September 23, 1964, while the first interview was conducted on September 16, 1964, and dictated on September 17, 1964, and the second interview was conducted on Sunday, September 20, 1964, and was dictated on September 21, 1964. This seemed to be a point of concern both in personal interview and before Committee." [NARA 124-10257-10397] The SSCIA testimony of S.A. Leon F. Brown has not been released.

The HSCA wrote that it "tried, but was unsuccessful, to determine the circumstances leading up to the Loran Hall interviews and the transmittal of the results of those interviews to the Warren Commission by way of FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C." [HSCA V11 p61] Loran Hall was asked by Jim Garrison:

Q. Did you ever manage to determine how they got on to you?

A. I know now, but not in 1964. I didn't know until about a month ago that the FBI had checked, had started to check on me, or that there was a report made on me on November 22, 1963, or November 23, 1963. I did not know until about three or four weeks ago that PATRICK had called and said Morris had told him to call. I did not know that PATRICK had called Mr. Logue and told him to get me out of Dallas, Texas, on the day of the assassination. I didn't know none of this existed until the last four weeks. I thought that - in fact I couldn't figure out what in the hell they knew about me in 1964. I figured the goddamned thing was over, finished and done and when I came down off the hill and the FBI man wanted to talk to me, it really shook me up a little...Well I said that it's possible that I met Mrs. Odio, but I never said I was there with Seymour and Howard at the same time. Someone goes so far as to say in one of the reports that I knew her parents or something in prison in Cuba.

Q. But the interesting thing is that you do state, it says, "Hall stated that this Cuban woman lived in Apartment A of the same apartments located on Magellan Circle where a Cuban friend of his by the name of Kiki Ferrer lived."

A. Now here's how that came about. He said, "Do you know a Mrs. Odio?" And I said "It's quite possibly I do, I don't know." And "What about Magellan Circle?" And the name did sound familiar to me and I said, "If its the same place that one of my Cuban friends lived at, it's possible that I met her." And he said, "What were the circumstances on this?" So I explained to him that it was one of the new apartment buildings, you know, one of the new modern type...I think she was about 40, I'd say in her late 40's and I asked her where this person lived, and she told me, so I went and knocked on the door and I went in. But I never met any other woman there and I was there twice and I still don't know if that was the name of the street or not, Magellan Circle.

James Hosty stated in 1993: "She thinks she saw OSWALD. She saw Seymour though. William Seymour. Loran Hall. I know of HEMMING. They were the ones that contacted Sylvia Odio. They were spying on her because she belonged to the more left-wing Cuban exile group, JURE. That was the group they were going to use when they were going to overthrow Castro when they were dealing with AMLASH. The Customs men were going after the ones that weren't part of that operation. Customs was working with JURE." James Hosty was asked if this was an attempt to dirty-up JURE by having OSWALD visit Sylvia Odio. He responded, "But OSWALD didn't visit them. The Cubans are like a lot of people, you know, all Gringos look alike. Yes. They've told me that. They have a hard time picking gringos apart."

HEMMING told this researcher: "It was OSWALD, not William Seymour. They didn't cut Hosty into too much information. I knew the guy 'Angelo,' who was with OSWALD at this meeting. I found out it was him years later. I have never asked him point blank, 'Who asked you to take OSWALD to Sylvia's house?' It's not proper to do these things. It would be kind of upsetting to him. The FBI never questioned me about Odio in 1964. I've been trying to find out how they got the name 'Hall.' It was a lead to me. They didn't ask anything. This was the first clue there was a cover-up. The HSCA never asked me about it." HEMMING said he had a personal relationship with certain FBI agents: "A couple of times I sat down with James O'Conner in Toby's Restaurant. All we talked about was how good the steak was. He'd say 'It's time for you to have a fuckin' meal.' O'Conner came by the house to bullshit a couple of times. In 1964, when they were looking for Ed Collins, they came by. My first conversation with O'Conner was in April 1961. That was my first contact in my life with the FBI. O'Conner was about 32 at the time. He was never a ASAC or SAC" James J. O'Conner was ASAC in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1975.

HEMMING denied having dispatched Loran Hall to Dallas in a similar time frame and situation to the Odio incident so that the name "Loran Hall" would surface in connection with OSWALD. HEMMING said William C. Sullivan asked, "Who do we got that we can put in fucking Dallas in this same time frame? He went to his punch cards. They know when the Pope wipes his ass. And guess who pops up? Dumb ass fuckin' Loran Hall is in town for the same period of time. Their snitch was in town, so they use him. Loran Hall was working for them. They didn't check with him first."

The HSCA noted all of this and remarked: "Of interest to the committee were the initial assertions of Loran Hall that he and his two associates, William Houston Seymour and LAWRENCE JOHN HOWARD, were the ones who had visited Sylvia Odio in September. All three had been actively involved in anti-Castro activity and were members of INTERPEN. The group was arrested as part of the Kennedy Administration's crackdown on anti-Castro operations. That policy, which highly incensed the anti-Castro and right-wing factions, was the result of an agreement that Kennedy had made with Khrushchev and Castro. Those factions considered the agreement a betrayal."

Sylvia Odio told the FBI that one of the men who visited her with OSWALD had odd hair, full in the middle, and short on the sides. When Richard Whatley visited Dick Hathcock, one of his associates had a "Mohawk style haircut." The visit occurred in July 1963. By September 1963, this man's hair would have grown in somewhat and would be full in the middle and short on the sides. When Gaeton Fonzi worked for Senator Richard Schweiker, Fonzi followed-up the Mohawk haircut lead. Dick Hathcock told him that he could not recall the names of the other two men who were with Richard Whatley: "But he does think now that the fellow with the Mohawk haircut was Latin looking. When I asked him if Angelo or Leopoldo could have been either of the names, he said he couldn't swear to it under oath but Leopoldo 'strikes a vague cord. It does sound quite familiar.'" Sylvia Odio was the Subject of an FBI investigation in New York City in 1965. [FBI 105-135351-6] Sylvia Odio testified before the HSCA: "Leopoldo was tall. The thing I remember the most was his forehead, which was bald on the side, had hair right in the middle. I think later on it has been like identified like a Mohawk haircut. He had little glasses...I probably said something to the effect that [Kennedy should be killed], that the Cubans felt this also...I was worried because when the Cubans say something like that, it is natural..." HEMMING told this researcher: "Bobby Willis was the guy with the Mohawk haircut. But this was in 1961. He was not the one who visited Sylvia Odio. I know who one of them was. When Whatley visited Hathcock with the guy with the Mohawk it was 1962. I was there asshole, don't fucking argue with me. It was not 1963. They showed up in California in the early part of 1962. I left Miami after New Years 1962 and went to California for a couple of weeks. They followed me out there. At that point in time Willis had a Mohawk haircut. They stayed in the back of a barber shop in Monterey Park, California. While Whatley was there he was visiting his buddy at Nature's Haven, where his lion was."

In 1965 HEMMING was involved with Roberto Alejos Arzu in an attempt to overthrow the Government of Guatemala. [CIA Intell. Information Cable IN 74057 10.16.65] The CIA reported that in April 1965 "Roberto Alejos Arzu, Guatemalan millionaire who resided in Miami Beach, Florida, planned the overthrow of the Government of Guatemala in the Spring of 1965, using a group of Cuban emigres he had recruited for the operation. On May 4, 1965, Alejos and Luis Sierra Lopez, military leader of the group, were apprehended and their arms cache seized by United States Government officials. There have been several reports on Alejos' recent involvement in another attempt to overthrow the Guatemalan Government. On October 13, 1965, Armando Medina Montes de Oca, a member of Roberto Alejos Arzu's abortive plot to overthrow the Guatemalan Government in the Spring of 1965, said that the pilot who flew Roberto Alejos to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, a short time ago [October 13, 1965] was GERALD PATRICK HEMMING. The aircraft landed at Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, where it remained for about two weeks. HEMMING is now in Miami. (Field Comment: HEMMING, an American soldier-of-fortune and United States Marine, has been engaged in Cuban revolutionary activities for about five years. HEMMING, leader of INTERPEN, a guerilla group, was most recently involved in the recruitment of Cuban emigres with guerilla warfare experience who would be willing to fight the Communist guerillas in the Dominican Republic on behalf of General Antonio Imbert Barrera. It is believed this plan never materialized.) Medina intends to give this information to the new Guatemalan Consul General in Miami, hoping that this will sharpen his interest in Alejos. (Field Comment: It was recently reported that Medina accepted an offer of $30,000 to deliver Alejos safely to Guatemalan authorities)." [CIA IN 74057 - 10.16.65 - Source: "A Cuban emigre, former member of a Cuban Commando Group, who is no longer associated with activists. Source is regarded as reliable, and previous reporting from him has proved to be accurate."] HEMMING told this researcher: "We were going to overthrow Montenegro. He was cutting deal with the guerrillas. Alejos didn't like it. He wouldn't let Cuban exiles launch raids against Castro. He eventually got ousted." Before the 1980 election Alejos complained that "most of the elements in the State Department are probably pro-Communist...either Mr. Carter is a totally incapable president or he is definitely a pro-communist element." [Jay Marshall, The Iran-Contra Connection]

The CIA reported that "a commando team of 49 Cuban exiles and Americans is being formed in Miami by Odelio Garcia, Derizanz [Diaz Lanz?] and GERALD PATRICK HEMMING, an American adventurer and soldier-of-fortune. Aton Constanzo Palau and Ramon Escarda Rubio appear to be leaders within the group. The commando team is allegedly to be used by Dominican General Antonio Imbert Barreras, head of the loyalist forces in the Dominican Republic, presumably to try and topple Francisco Caamano Deno, leader of the rebel forces. The backer of the commando team was described as an American lawyer living in Miami.

"On the evening of June 8, 1965, GERALD PATRICK HEMMING held a meeting at the home of Aton Constanzo Palau. Two of HEMMING'S men were there. HEMMING mentioned that he had made a trip that afternoon to see the financial backers of the Commando team that is scheduled to leave for the Dominican Republic...At 8:00 p.m. on June 9, 1965, HEMMING said that he and his backer would be leaving for the Dominican Republic on June 10, 1965. He did not know for certain how long they would remain there, but mentioned they might stay from one to five days. He said that they are scheduled to see General Antonio Imbert Barreras and, upon their return to Miami, they are to bring back with them one of Imbert's 'Supervisors' who is to oversee the processing of the men. HEMMING said that they intend to bring with them some money for the group. When Escarda mentioned to HEMMING the subject of salaries, HEMMING said that the backer would not put up any advance pay until the men have been processed and are ready to leave Florida. This step, he said, is being taken to insure that the men will not quit at the last moment. HEMMING described the backer as an American lawyer who had an import/export office in Miami and also owns a 'Buffet' (Field Comment: Possibly a delicatessen). HEMMING stressed that he would not push this man any harder because there were several other groups that wanted the job. He emphasized that he has the contract, and does not intend to lose it. Source: A Cuban refugee who is associated with activists in the Miami area. Source is regarded as reliable and previous reporting from him has proved to be accurate."

HEMMING said the training would begin after he returned from the Dominican Republic. [CIA DB-315/02029-65] The CIA: "HEMMING told I. Irving Davidson on June 15, 1965, that he was unable to keep his June 14, 1965, meeting because of (deleted) surveillance." On June 15, 1965, a CIA Intelligence Information Cable was titled "Financial Backer of GERALD PATRICK HEMMING Identified as Irving Davidson." It read: "On June 12, 1965, HEMMING, while under the influence of liquor, said is financial backer is I. Irving Davidson, who went to the Dominican Republic on June 12, 1965, by private plane." On June 16, 1965, Aton Constanzo Palau told (deleted) that I. Irving Davidson was the intermediary between Tony Imbert and HEMMING. I. Irving Davidson told HEMMING: 'I am tired of running, this show has a green light from the top, and I don't care if (deleted), Kubark, and (deleted) are watching us." [CIA 201-41581 6.17.65] On July 14, 1965, Aton Constanzo Palau told (deleted) that he had appointed FRANK FIORINI, Nino Diaz and others to leader his force which will number about 3,000 men. [CIA 201-41581 7.22.65]

HEMMING told this researcher: "You remember when the 82nd Airborne invaded the Dominican Republic in April 1965? After that there was some people who were worried about who was running the fucking government, so we wouldn't have to go in there and do the same thing all over again. You had Juan Bosch. With everybody threatening to overthrow everyone else it kept them off balance enough so they didn't turn around and throw the fucking U.S. troops out of there. Everybody was there in 1965. Mitch Werbell, PHILLIPS and DeBRUEYS were there. It was a critical thing. Because Fidel's boys were about to take over the fuckin' place. I was in the Green Beret Reserves in 1964, on active duty."

In 1965 the FBI generated five Letter Head Memorandums about HEMMING. [MM 2-387-6.15.65, 6.18.65, 8.5.65, 12.15.65; Bufile NR 7.27.65] Subject: Anton Constanzo Palau, HEMMING, Neutrality Matters, Internal Security, Dominican Republic, June 15, 1965, June 18, 1965, March 18, 1966, September 29, 1966, all at Miami. [FBI 2-387] That year the CIA sent the Justice Department a letter that acknowledged HEMMING had been a voluntary CIA informant who had been in contact with the Domestics Contact Division in Los Angeles.

In December 1966 HEMMING said he went to Africa, to work on an National Aeronautics and Space Administration project. In HEMMING'S Motion for Favorable Evidence he asked for: "All reports, files and documents held by CIA, FBI, Department of State, and other agencies reference to the defendant's employment during the calender year 1966 under Contract NBy-710005, Support Facilities, Phase I, Ascension Island, in connection with United States Air Force downrange missile program, especially those that refer to CIA and U.S. Armed Forces support of both government and insurgent forces within the then Republic of the Congo." HEMMING said he was tracking down Ché Guevara: "Ché was in the Congo at that time. He was in Baraka, on Lake Tanganika. We were the backup team. Felix Rodriguez had never met Ché. I was the only one who could pick him out of a crowd." In 1966 HEMMING claimed he was involved with the United States Air Force Down Range Guided Missile Program as a CIA advisor. HEMMING 1994: "I asked for discovery, for a trial, as to what they were saying about me on the Down Range Missile program. I'm not claiming anything. It's called greymail. You gonna put me in jail? Okay? How about when I was doing this? What do you say about that?" In 1966 the FBI generated four Letter Head Memorandums concerning HEMMING and one FBI message: "Subject: Haitian Revolutionary Activities (Confidential)." [Director, FBI message, 5-25 PM 2-15-66; LHMs MM2-387 3.18.66, 9.29.66, 7.15.66 NR DC, 9.1.66 NR NY]

In early 1967 HEMMING was considered for a position in Vietnam with the Agency for International Development. The FBI conducted a background investigation: "Several Miami acquaintances of applicant variously described him as untrustworthy, lacking in integrity, unreliable, emotionally immature and lacking in character. Confidential informant furnished information regarding trip by applicant to Guatemala during which he drank excessively and spoke of the U.S. Government in a derogatory manner. Informant reported most of applicant's friends in Miami have been soldiers-of-fortune who do not have excellent reputations. Investigation reflected in this report was conducted by S.A. Norman Bliss at Miami Florida, except where otherwise stated. The case was referred by the Civil Service Commission under provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 as amended. (Deleted) family and left Miami with the expressed intention of returning to live at his mother's home in California. For some days before leaving he did not bring his 1967 Dodge Polara car home to part it, as the finance company was trying to repossess it. In addition he owes Sears Store and numerous other people. MM T-1 [Howard K. Davis] advised that Robert K. Brown, a writer, has recently been living in Miami at 1925 S.W. 4th Street and is well acquainted with HEMMING. Brown has heard that HEMMING, after leaving Miami, traveled to New Orleans and got in touch with Dick Whatley and Roy Hargraves. The three of them reportedly got in touch with Jim Garrison, and were utilized by him in some way in regard to the Kennedy assassination investigation. MM T-1 stated that his wife, whom he got pregnant several months before he married her, seems to be a decent sort of girl, and is apparently loyal to the applicant." [FBI 62-109060-5766 NR 9.26.67 Bliss NARA FBI 124-10052-10403] On November 7, 1967, the FBI checked its OSWALD file and found three documents that mentioned HEMMING. [FBI 105-82555-6551, 5016, 5242] HEMMING told this researcher: "I was going to be a State Department Foreign Service Reserve Officer attached to the Public Safety Division of AID in Vietnam. What the fuck you think I was going to Vietnam for? I'm a shooter. I was hired despite the FBI. I'm going there to die. But people had plans, and they didn't work out, and they have tragic consequences."

It was at this time that New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison began to look at HEMMING as a suspect in the Kennedy assassination. HEMMING told this researcher: "I had to resign because of the Garrison investigation. I wanted to know who the fuck set it up? If it was a KGB damage control operation, I wouldn't have had to resign from the State Department. Garrison starts talking about Loran Hall, Robert K. Brown and a lot of people linked to me. He was gonna haul my ass back from Vietnam."

The New Orleans District Attorney's office stated:

"On Friday, July 7, 1967, GERRY PATRICK HEMMING came without warning into the DA's office and offered to help us in our investigation. He was interviewed in Jim Garrison's office. ROY HARGRAVES accompanied GERRY PATRICK, but, on PATRICK'S orders HARGRAVES remained sitting outside in the lobby during this visit.

"GERRY PATRICK, who is approximately 6 feet 7 inches tall, was dressed in khaki fatigues and advised he had decided to visit this office because he was en route from Florida to California, where he has now relocated, and it was convenient for him to visit us.

"PATRICK primarily discussed the involvement of Hall, Howard and Seymour during this interview. He explained that he was in Miami at the time of the assassination, and as soon as he heard that Kenney had been shot in Dallas, he telephoned Lester Logue to find out if Hall was in town. PATRICK said he did this because he believed at the time that Hall very well could have assassinated the President. PATRICK said that he still does not reject the possibility that Hall was involved. PATRICK identified Lester Logue as the person who bailed out Hall and Seymour in October 1963, when they were arrested for possessing narcotics.

"PATRICK said that the people who went to see Mrs. Odio were Hall, Howard and Seymour, however, he added they were accompanied by a fourth man, Enrique Molina Rivera, whom he identified as a Castro agent, thereby suggesting that the plot to assassinate Kennedy might have had Castro origins.

"On Saturday, July 8, 1967, PATRICK returned to the office with ROY HARGRAVES. We went out to lunch with them and PATRICK discussed the fact that he was presently attempting to get a job with the State Department in some advisory or supervisory capacity.

"PATRICK indicated to me that he had in the past worked for Life Magazine, and had had an office in the Time-Life Building. When I mentioned this to Dick Billings he said that the extent of PATRICK'S involvement was that he sent letters to the White House on Life stationary, without authority to do so. Billings added that PATRICK was more of a talker than a doer. He said that HARGRAVES has been described to him as a 'bomber.' i.e. HARGRAVES engaged in such activities as knocking on doors and throwing a hand grenade inside when the door was opened."

In May 1968 HEMMING told an investigator for Jim Garrison that he had met Guy Banister, Sergio Arcacha Smith, BRINGUIER and Edward Butler. [Burton to Garrison 5.8.68] In 1994 HEMMING stated: "I first met Ed Butler in 1978 at The Miami Herald building. He tried to convince me he worked with Tony Cuesta." HEMMING was not hired by Garrison because: "There is reason to believe that he is still working for the CIA." New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison was quoted by The New York Times as having said: "Loran Hall of California had inside knowledge of the assassination the day it happened. He said government officials had not called Mr. Hall before the Warren Commission." [NYT 12.27.67] HEMMING told this researcher: "I was threatened with phony exposure by Garrison. Who came forward of any consequence? I'm the only real motherfucker Garrison talked to. Oliver Stone had me on the payroll and he was still paying attention to Garrison? He was living in fantasy land. He wouldn't know the fuckin' truth if it was right in front of him."

Lawrence J. LaBorde visited Alberto Fernandez in Miami in April 1967 and lived on board the Tejana III. Lawrence J. LaBorde then contacted the New Orleans Domestic Contacts Division office:

May 11, 1967

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

SUBJECT: LaBORDE, Lawrence J. Born August 27, 1909

1. Dick Hanna, Western Hemisphere/Security, advised that Western Hemisphere had just received a call from Domestic Contacts Division. Subject, who was apparently used during the Cuban operation, had called Domestic Contacts Division stating that he had just received a subpoena from Garrison. He asked if he should leave the country or what?

2. Dick Hanna advised that Donovan Pratt, Ray Rocca's deputy, has been informed as has Nancy Gratz, WH/CI (RL 9008). He asked that we pull up Subject's file and advised WH and CI what were have on the man. (Deleted) Sayle (Deleted) A review of La Borde's file in the Office of Security, on March 17, 1961, received a verbal request for a (deleted) for Subject' utilization as a maritime asset for Project (Deleted). His occupation was described as Port Captain, and he was indicated for having served eight years on the vessel SS Tejana. A (Deleted POA) was granted on March 24, 1961, for 'contact assessment only.' On May 29, 1961, the Office of Security notified WH Division that biographic data provided on Subject was inadequate for further processing. WH was being advised the case was being placed in "pending, deferred status" until such time as additional data was furnished OS. No additional data was forthcoming, and a year later WH Division advised OS that the (deleted) and pending (deleted) actions may be canceled since it had no further interest in Subject.

Mr. Donovan Pratt, CI/R&A, who reviewed the 201 file on the Subject, had advised that Subject was never recruited or paid directly by the Agency, but did serve as an engineer and captain on a ship used in the Cuban operation. (The owner of the ship was recruited and paid for its use). Subject, did, however, become privy to a great deal of information about the operations, none of which would probably be compromising at this late date. Pratt advised that the Subject is a "swindler, crook, drunken bum..." who is known to have been the source of anti-CIA articles in the press. He also allegedly has impersonated himself in the past as having CIA backing (a boat sale). Pratt feels this was a provocation by Garrison [to entrap the CIA into obstructing justice]. (DCS in New Orleans has no secure commo link to the Hdqrs.. and Subject's contact would have to be called up to Hqs. -- Pratt assuming Garrison has DCS phone tapped.) CI plans to discuss the matter further with DCS)

[NARA 1993.08.20.14:49:21:650028 also 1993.06.24.14:14:42:340410]

HEMMING told this researcher: "LaBorde shows up and I can't even remember what his fucking cover story was. I thought he was dead. This is a safe house. Like we ain't advertising where we're living. He shows up in 1978 when we're in the smuggling business, hearing all kinds of stories from people that he knows, so evidently he's been inside doing that type of work on Black Tuna, Banco, Grouper One and Grouper Two, Swordfish. This fucker shows up and he knows a lot of the principals. So I figure he's still on the company payroll. They're pissed off because we're going after company people. The guy that ran the intelligence for the Bay of Pigs was one of the top smugglers. The fuckers threw down on me with silenced MAC-10 for about four hours. He had a condo with a fucking drain in the floor. These are bad assed motherfuckers, they're all top CIA people, and they're all fucking smugglers. We went after their Colombian assets. LaBorde scuttled a Canadian Corvette in Key West in 1978 because he wasn't paid for smuggling. I went over my Freedom of Information Act stuff with him 1979. He ran afoul of smugglers that year, and ended up floating in a bay in Key West."

HEMMING termed FBI Lawrence J. LaBorde "a snitch." HEMMING told this researcher: "Lawrence J. LaBorde showed up in 1962. A safehouse was set up, and who ends up knocking on the door like a Loran Hall, Larry LaBorde, the engineer, a nobody, a grease monkey. And he's got plans. He's gonna take out this ship on pier three that's hauling stuff to Cuba. All these little ploys that people have tried to set us up on - bombings, kidnappings and shit - over the months. Robberies, all kinds of criminal activities that they're trying to get people involved in so they can bust their ass...LaBorde did what he was told to do, set us up."

HEMMING and his crew the smugglers that Lawrence J. LaBorde ran afoul of.

In June 1967 Michael W. LaBorde (born November 29, 1942), the son of Lawrence J. LaBorde, went to New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's office and spoke with investigators. The FBI obtained this information: "Michael LaBorde mentioned the publicized photograph which Garrison contends shows people standing behind a fence on the grassy knoll and Michael LaBorde told investigators that possibly PATRICK and ROY might be connected with the people on that knoll."

On July 12, 1967, Michael LaBorde telephoned the FBI office and stated that Jim Garrison was "getting pretty close to uncovering the activities of the Cuban Group that LaBorde's father was a member...LaBorde stated his only interest in the matter is to keep Garrison away from his father. He stated his father is a true American and will be until he dies. LaBorde stated: 'You have to stop Garrison before he harms the country.'" [NARA FBI 124-10251-10306]

On July 13, 1967, Michael W. LaBorde appeared in the New Orleans FBI office. Michael W. LaBorde stated: "LaBorde's father, Lawrence Joseph LaBorde, had formerly worked with the CIA and worked with Cuban organizations against Fidel Castro. One JERRY PATRICK and one ROY (LNU) used to work with CIA with the Cuban organizations with Lawrence J. LaBorde in the Miami Florida, area; but PATRICK and ROY duped Cubans out of money and were dismissed by CIA."

Approximately three weeks ago, Michael LaBorde went to District Attorney Jim Garrison's office in New Orleans and spoke with investigators Lynn (LNU) and Louie Ives. LaBorde mentioned the publicized photograph which Garrison contends shows people standing behind a fence on the grassy knoll overlooking the sight of the assassination of President Kennedy, and LaBorde told investigators that possibly PATRICK and ROY might be connected to the people on the knoll. LaBorde suggested to the investigators that someone be sent to Miami, where he thought PATRICK and ROY to be, and talk with them to see if they might be able to furnish any information about the assassination of President Kennedy...

On Saturday, July 8, 1967, JERRY PATRICK and ROY walked into District Attorney Garrison's office. They were dressed in Army fatigues, and they stated they were now living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. According to investigator Ives, PATRICK and ROY are allegedly working for some magazine and had come to New Orleans for information about the assassination probe by Garrison for the magazine. Ives told LaBorde that PATRICK and ROY wanted to know if Garrison has any witnesses who claim they saw someone in a building opposite the Texas School Book Depository shooting at the President. Ives showed photographs of PATRICK and ROY and asked LaBorde to identify them, which he did. LaBorde stated the photographs show PATRICK and ROY outside the District Attorney's Office with investigators from the District Attorney's Office and LaBorde believes the photographs were taken without the knowledge of PATRICK and ROY. [NARA FBI 124-10046-10312]

On July 18, 1967, the CIA cited this New Orleans FBI report. A CIA document stated that "ROY may be identical to LeRoy Collins an associate of HEMMING. He may also -though the possibility is more remote -- be identical with one I. A. Roy, or his son, I. A. Roy Jr., both of whom were members of a group that bought a schooner from Lawrence J. LaBorde." [Unmarked CIA doc.] The FBI prepared a Letter Head Memorandum dated July 18, 1967, on the visit, with background reports on the people mentioned in it. Michael LaBorde had been the Subject of an investigation involving Interstate Transportation of a Stolen Motor Vehicle. [FBI 62-109060-5583] LaBorde admitted riding in the automobile with Charles Rennick Knotts, but denied any knowledge that the car was stolen.

HEMMING 1994: "It was not ROY HARGRAVES [behind the fence on the knoll]. The kid was pissed off with his dad at the time. He was a pudjoe, and looked nothing like his father. He used to hang around to hear war stories." The CIA generated several documents on HEMMING around this time.

William Broe, Chief of the Western Hemisphere Division of the CIA, prepared a paper, "Interlocking Relationships between Robert K. Brown, Ralph E. Slafter and Garrison," in which he named HEMMING, Edwin Anderson Collins, Lawrence J. LaBorde and Dennis Harber as links between Robert K. Brown, who had been investigating JMWAVE activities in August 1967, and New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison. William Broe believed HEMMING and Robert K. Brown were cooperating with Jim Garrison in an effort to entrap and discredit the CIA.

A CIA cable from Merida, Mexico dated July 8, 1967, to CIA Headquarters, stated the Mexico CIA station reported that Robert K. Brown visited Dennis Harber in prison. Robert K. Brown first met Dennis Harber in 1962, when Dennis Harber was a language instructor at a Cuban refugee camp. In 1963 Dennis Harber attempted to place a radio-activated bomb on a Yugoslavian ship carrying phosphates between Mexico and Cuba while it was in a Mexican harbor; he was captured and imprisoned by Mexican authorities. Dennis Harber knew Edward Anderson Collins. Robert K. Brown asked Dennis Harber if he knew Loran Eugene Hall and HARGRAVES. He showed Dennis Harber a picture of David Ferrie. Robert K. Brown commented, "I don't recollect that I ever showed a picture of Ferrie to Dennis Harber. That name never surfaced. Harber was a very bizarre guy, very bright. He was alcoholic and gay, when into his booze. But in getting back to this thing of me showing him a picture of Ferrie, that's somebody smoking bad dope." [FBI AT-105-3193, 12.4.63, 62-109060-1521; CIA 1100-976; McCracken/Swilley Miami P.D. Memo 10.15.67] On July 17, 1967, the FBI in New Orleans ran a file check on HEMMING. [FBI 89-33-(?)]

In September 1967 HEMMING and Robert K. Brown stored an arms cache in a Miami rooming house. [HEMMING HSCA file - seq. docs.] Robert K. Brown commented, "No way, no way. That's wrong." The CIA reported: "Local police have genuine interest in case due to ascertained presence of arms, possibly automatic weapons, in rooming house. Have been holding off planned raid, started surveillance, and pursued investigation at Station's recommendation. It was their initiative to put undercover man with Robert K. Brown (Police requested and were given financial assistance for this from Station.) Should Station withdraw, believe police will proceed to raid rooming house. Would appreciate Hqs. guidance as to whether station should take hands off posture, or continue seeking information on what Robert K. Brown and Company are up to...Robert K. Brown had been talking with HEMMING group i.e. Martin Casey, Joe Gorman and Joe (?) Collins." [CIA 201-189473 10.13.67] On September 15, 1967, Sgt. E.W. McCracken of the Intelligence Unit of the Miami Police Department sent an Inter-Office Memorandum to Lieut. H. Swilley of the Intelligence Unit: "On August 31, 1967, information was received from a reliable and confidential informant that a revolutionary group, residing at 1925 S.W. 4th Street, had in their possession a warehouse loaded with arms, ammunition and C-4 explosives. An immediate surveillance of the aforementioned location was established by this office and the following was learned. By keeping these persons under surveillance and through license tag checks the following names were developed: Martin Francis Casey, Joseph Cavendish Garman, Ralph Elmer Slafter, James Arthur Lewis, Ralph Grant Edens, Alfredo Dominquez, Harry G. Worley, Robert Kenneth Brown. Person who visited the above Subjects: Peter Ojozy and Donald Willis 66 Comet HW 661 (1967 Illinois)." On October 12, 1967, S.A. James D. Hayes generated a memorandum titled "CIA Operations - Miami" that was highly deleted and contained the name of Robert K. Brown and identifying data along with several FBI file numbers. The rest of the document was labeled: "Non-Assassination Related." [NARA 124-10265-10127]

In 1967 the CIA ran a "Covert Special Inquiry" to determine if Robert K. Brown was connected with Ramparts magazine. The CIA: "A dispatch from Chief of Station/JMWAVE dated July 26, 1968, concerned the agitation caused by Robert K. Brown during recent inquiries into (deleted). Precautions were taken to protect the status of present and former JMWAVE members as a result." In 1968 Robert K. Brown formed Panther Publications, which specialized in do-it-yourself bomb manuals and books on partisan warfare. He began publishing Soldier-of-Fortune magazine in 1974.

On January 11, 1968, the FBI in New Orleans ran a file check on HEMMING. [FBI-89-69-3742] On February 21, 1968, the FBI in Los Angeles generated a document about HEMMING.

(Deleted)

November 19, 1968

MEMORANDUM FOR: Headquarters

SUBJECT: Project (Deleted).

1. Attached is a report regarding ROY EMORY HARGRAVES, 882 Via Wanda, Long Beach who was arrested for the October 22, 1968, bombing of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) Peace Center, 2628 East Anaheim, Long Beach. HARGRAVES, an unemployed ironworker, married to Carol L. was born in Missouri on February 14, 1940. His Social Security number is 527-48-2730.

2. (Deleted) stated that HARGRAVES, who admitted an arrest for gun smuggling in Miami in 1965, claimed he worked for the CIA in Florida.

3. (Deleted) said that HARGRAVES was interrogated by representatives of the FBI while under arrest by the Long Beach Police Department. (Deleted) had no information regarding the results of the interrogation.

4. HARGRAVES is presently in jail completing his sentence resulting from misdemeanor traffic convictions.

William P. Curtin, Special Agent in Charge

On December 13, 1968, the CIA reported on ROY HARGRAVES: "Reference (deleted) Memo dated November 19, 1968, with Report on Subject from a Confidential Source. Office of Security records are negative on Subject except for a newspaper clipping dated December 5, 1962, in file of GERALD PATRICK HEMMING. The clipping reported the arrest of a band of anti-Castro guerillas at No Name Key, Florida...GERALD PATRICK HEMMING is a figure in Garrison's investigation. He is an ex-Marine, soldier-of-fortune, who is the leader of the anti-Castro group called INTERPEN. His group had no Agency connection, but he is known to other Cuban organizations. (Deleted) A list of these reports was furnished the FBI in August 1964. HEMMING is also known as JERRY PATRICK. Reference report states HARGRAVES is close to Jose Antonio Durarte Oropesa. Jose Zacasias Tallet Duarte was of interest in June 1968 because of newspaper publicity in connection with the case of Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, accused assassin of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Jose Zacasias Tallet Duarte said he had argued and scuffled with Sirhan Sirhan on May 21, 1968, at an Students for a Democratic Society meeting held at the home of Robert and Raquel Leanle, Colombians, now residing in Hollywood, California. Sirhan accused Duarte of being a CIA Agent. (Deleted) Duarte, a Cuban poet and writer, had been a special advisor to Raoul Roa and a writer for El Mundo, Cuban newspaper. Cuban Power is an auxiliary action group of MIRR, an anti-Castro organization of Cuban exiles headquartered in Miami under the leadership of Orlando Bosch. On November 15, 1968, he was convicted on five charges of violating the Neutrality Laws of the U.S. at Miami, Florida. Cuban Power has been responsible for a number of bombings and has been under continuing investigation by the FBI. Office of Security records were negative on Pam Barsby, Robert Barsby, Charles Whittington and Theodore Gloum. Regarding Lloyd Pullen, a report on Mort Sahl for a Confidential Source of the Office of Security advised on July 1968 that Pullen is a local leader of an organization called 'Staff' which is the front name for the Minutemen. Pullen was described as a close associate of GERALD PATRICK HEMMING. 'Jerry' referred to in reference report is possibly HEMMING." [CIA Memo re: HARGRAVES 12.13.68] HEMMING told this researcher: "Duarte was with Rolando Masferrer. He was a suspected Castro agent. What is a Castro agent doing with Sirhan Sirhan? Somebody set it up, tried to burn fucking Fidel for another hit. I was a block away from the Ambassador Hotel when the assassination went down. Lieutenant Hendricks of the Long Beach Police Department put Duarte on HARGRAVES and was stunned that they knew one another. They immediately started speaking Spanish. Because the Long Beach Police Department and the CIA thought he had come out of Mexico, that he'd defected. HARGRAVES says 'Bullshit, this motherfucker has been working with us in Miami for five fucking years, working for Rolando Masferrer.'

"The whole scheme was to get the Brown Berets together with the Black Panthers so that the final solution could all happen at once. You had the Watts riots, then the Martin Luther King thing in 1968. They said 'Enough of this shit, we're gonna eliminate these motherfuckers. If they ain't here, they can't riot.' Duarte is supposed to be a Castro Cuban because he wasn't known in the Miami exile community that wide. He came through Mexico. So all these Fidelista's from Mexico were gonna help the Brown Berets."

Journalist Peter Noyes told the FBI that a source who was a former officer in the Black Panthers in Los Angeles told him that Sirhan Sirhan attended a Black Panther Party meeting in May 1968. [FBI LA Memo 6.20.69]

HEMMING 1995: "What happened the next day after the Robert Kennedy assassination that's got my name on it? The next morning at 7:30 a.m. they had Sirhan's mother's house bannered off as a crime scene. Dick Hathcock, who was working for Baxter Ward, was there with a camera man and a sound van. I drove up in my black and white and went inside Sirhan's mothers house. Hathcock almost had a heart attack when I walked by him." HEMMING was asked: "Did you go on behalf of the Los Angeles Police Department?" HEMMING told this researcher: "No, on behalf of me."

In 1968 HEMMING collaborated with the CIA in Los Angeles in running operations against the Black Panthers. HEMMING was never carried on the books of the CIA, but his operative, ROY EMORY HARGRAVES was. HARGRAVES had a CIA Office of Security Security File: "Security Support to (deleted) (ROY HARGRAVES) SF 518 334 F SD/1. Attached is a self-explanatory memorandum to the Chief/ (deleted) from the undersigned. The information is being furnished to him because of the alleged prior connection between one of the individuals involved and Project (deleted)." A CIA Index Card regarding HARGRAVES read: "PROJECT (deleted)." [CIA FOIA 42922] These deletions probably read: "MHCHAOS / Revolutionary Guerrilla Training in Mexico."

MHCHAOS was a CIA Operation of the Chief, Counter-Intelligence Staff, in which New Left radicals were followed when they went overseas, in order to determine if they made contact with the Soviets, Communist Chinese or Cubans. It was started in 1967. In 1968 CIA Stations overseas began having certain American citizens who traveled abroad monitored by friendly foreign intelligence services. In mid-1969 the CIA began sending its own CHAOS agents abroad. The Rockefeller Commission reported that Operation Chaos produced files on American citizens and many reports to the FBI. What the Rockefeller Report did not mention was that several New Left figures who traveled abroad were the subject of violent attacks by the assets or CHAOS agents who were surveilling them. Abbie Hoffman, a leader of the Youth International Party, was beaten by three men when he visited Paris while OPERATION CHAOS was in effect. Songwriter and singer Phil Ochs throat was slit when he visited Algeria during this period.

Richard Ober, former Chief of Station in New Deli, India, was transferred to CIA Headquarters where he became Chief of Counter-Intelligence (Special Operations) and was in charge of OPERATION CHAOS. His boss was JAMES ANGLETON. Charles Colson told Senator Lowell Weicker that on several occasions Richard Ober received packages from HUNT which he then passed on to Richard Helms. "Colson indicated he did not know the contents of the packages." [USDC SDF 75-640-CR-Peter Fay Defendant's Exhibit 4 Werbell]

In 1969 and 1970 the CIA was asked by the White House to determine whether foreign governments were supplying undercover agents and funds to the Black Panther Party. [NYT 12.22.74] A CIA document regarding MHCHAOS read: "The dissention among American black political extremists and hijackers abroad i.e. the break up of the (deleted) Black Panther Faction (deleted) and other similar fractionalizations, to a great part the result of an inability of the main protagonists to capitalize on the status as 'international revolutionaries' have reduced these activities to a shadow of former dimensions." [CIA MHCHAOS #20 8.20.73 by CI] ANGLETON told Seymour Hirsch that he had obtained information from Communist sources about alleged demolition training of black militants by the North Koreans. ANGLETON believed the anti-Vietnam war movement in the United States was controlled by foreign powers. Jerry G. Brown believed the same. Ron Kessler related:

"Heaping ridicule on the efforts of the Church Committee and the Presidentially appointed Rockefeller Commission that investigated the abuses, Brown said the CIA'S Operation Chaos - the effort to investigate domestic dissidents - was seen by our 'unsophisticated detractors' as 'a purposeful attempt by the Agency and the NIXON Administration to subvert the domestic political process by spying on American citizens.' This was not the case at all, Brown claimed. In fact, he said, Operation Chaos represented an effort to address 'serious National Security questions. Those who would destroy us and our efforts were not Soviets and our other worldwide enemies, but our own elected legislative representatives. The tragedy of the congressional and Rockefeller Commission inquiries into Operation Chaos was that none of the staff investigators bothered to find out how the operation began,' Brown said. If they had, they would have found out that it began with what Brown called a serious problem - the leak in 1967 to Ramparts magazine of the fact that the CIA was secretly funding the National Student Association. According to Brown, this funding was essential so that the National Student Association could fight Soviet efforts to control international youth organizations. The tip to Ramparts, he said, was 'one of the most flagrant leaks of classified information ever known to the Agency.' And who leaked the information? According to Brown it was the KGB, which obtained the information directly from the CIA and gave it 'through individuals peripherally connected with the magazine' to Ramparts. 'The exposure of the Agency's involvement with the National Student Association by Ramparts was 'totally inspired by the KGB,' Brown said." Brown claimed the CIA learned this information from a Soviet defector.

Cord Meyer, the man in charge of the National Student Association's funding, stated that Michael Wood, an employee of the National Student Association, gave the information to Ramparts. [Kessler, Inside the CIA page 192]

HEMMING said HARGRAVES worked on construction jobs with Richard Whatley in Baton Rouge in 1967. HEMMING: "I got to Baton Rouge, talked to everybody there, met with HARGRAVES and went to see Garrison. After two weeks with Garrison HARGRAVES decided to turn over his construction company to Richard Whatley, Louis Van Hook and take off with me to California." In Los Angeles HARGRAVES got a job as a bodyguard for Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver.

A CIA Index card read: "/N HEMMING, GERALD PATRICK OR C534051 /D MEM September 30, 1968, P2 Black Power Threat (copy in file October 1977) 2249241 68." [CIA FOIA 42992] HEMMING'S claim to have trained Black Panthers was corroborated by a CIA document that stated he "trained Black Panthers." [Allen v. DOD CIA Memo Headquarters 9.25.69 #41277]

On November 21, 1968, the FBI generated a document entitled Pedro Eduardo de Jesus Arnao-Garcia. [FBI File 105-25454]

On January 16, 1969, this Secret Dispatch was sent to the Chief, 5, Info. Chief, WH Division, from Chief of Station, Mexico City, "Subject 5/MHCHAOS/Revolutionary Guerilla Training in Mexico.

1. Attached for your information is a copy of a memorandum on the above Subject, dated December 27, 1968, from the Legal Attache.

2. The Station's files contain no record of ROY HARGRAVES. For information on Jose Antonio Duarte Oropesa see WAVE -3924 of March 22, 1964, WAVE-7683 of June 13, 1967, etc. For information on GERALD PATRICK HEMMING see WAVE-7632, and WAVE 7619. (Deleted) for Willard Curtis." [HMMA 36214 Hdqrs.. File Reference 200-60387/3 CIA FOIA #09258]

SUBJECT: REPORTED GUERRILLA TRAINING SCHOOL IN MEXICO

105-7255 (December 27, 1968).

On October 29, 1968, a confidential source who has furnished reliable information in the past and who has been active in Cuban revolutionary matters for the past ten years advised as follows:

GERALD PATRICK HEMMING is an American soldier-of-fortune and adventurer who currently resides in Los Angeles, California, and has been involved in Cuban Revolutionary Activities for the past six years. The source learned form HEMMING that ROY HARGRAVES, another American adventurer currently living in Los Angeles California was formerly active in Cuban revolutionary matters in Miami. As of October 29, 1968, HARGRAVES was in jail in Los Angeles, charged with dynamiting right-wing organizations and also the headquarters of the Black Panther Party in the Los Angeles area. HEMMING reportedly learned from HARGRAVES that he works for Jose Antonio Duarte Cropesa, a Cuban exile living in Los Angeles who is associated with black militant organizations and extreme right wing groups. Duarte apparently wants racial warfare between these groups and is promoting unrest.

HEMMING told the source he was informed by HARGRAVES that there were guerilla warfare camps in Mexico and that such groups as the Panthers and SDS send members to Mexico to receive guerilla warfare training. HARGRAVES claimed that Duarte said that he sent an American friend to Mexico to inspect these guerilla warfare camps and to report back to him.

The source described HEMMING and HARGRAVES as extremists, activists, mercenaries, opportunists and immoral. However, they have a thorough knowledge of Cuban Revolutionary Activities, have participated in many proposed raids and invasions, are knowledgeable concerning Cuban matters and are acquainted with the Cuban exile community in the United States. The source stated that HEMMING, however, while in a position to furnish information, frequently alters, distorts and changes the information to suit his fancy.

The Black Panthers are a militant extremist Negro group based in California, but with a nation-wide membership. The Students for a Democratic Society is an anarchistically inclined group of the New Left. Pertinent portions of the foregoing information have been furnished to the Mexican Federal Security Police, Ministry of Government and Attorney General's Office."

[MKCHAOS - Revolutionary Guerrilla Training in Mexico 1.10.69]

HEMMING told this researcher: "I'm HARGRAVES' case officer. He ain't telling me shit. HARGRAVES blew a nigger right through a plate glass window - put him in the hospital for nine months! He's Cleaver's bodyguard for some operations. When he blew the Panther through the window, it was approved by Cleaver. Cleaver was on the CIA pay roll... Project Long Beach, fucking M-60's, AK-47s all over the fucking place. They were going to go and hit the downtown Panther Headquarters. I told 'em, 'There ain't nothing there. There's four boxes of 50 caliber ammo, but there's tunnels, steel doors, sandbags and bad motherfuckers that walk in there. Four guys walked up to the front and they blew their fuckasses away. Ended up having to bomb them from the fucking roof. "

HEMMING credited HARGRAVES with having been approached to set up Donald Freed on bogus charges of possession of hand grenades in 1968. Don Freed, who led the Black Panther support committee in Los Angeles, was tried and acquitted of the charges in 1970. HEMMING: "Did you ask Freed if he knew how we were setting him up in L.A.? They approached HARGRAVES to set-up Donald Freed with the grenades. HARGRAVES approached me and I said no. Because right now I'm going to put you into the Panthers, so I don't want you bombing them. So he went into the Panthers and he was Eldridge's boy. Eventually Freed was set up by Jarrett. But they threw it out. What I'm hinting at here is 'Hey, you guys want to talk about my three years in California, huh, it will make Watergate look sick. You want to know about California, because they don't know what the fuck I was doing in California. Well I got some logs and some memories which tell me what I was doing in California. I was watching those cocksuckers because they tried to set me up on the Dallas thing."

In HEMMING'S Motion for Favorable Evidence he asked for: "All files, documents, and memorandums held by CIA, FBI, U.S. Treasury Department, and other agencies that refer to the defendant's activities within Los Angeles County, California, during calender years 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1970, inclusive, especially those activities involving terrorist activities, bombings and conspiracies by militant groups specifically the case involving a certain Donald Freed, who was charged with illegal possession of destructive devices, to wit: fragmentation hand grenades."

A CIA document read "October 20, 1968. At 9:50 a reliable source advised [CIA] that Subject ROY EMORY HARGRAVES approached him to 'blow up a left-wing' office in Long Beach. The source was shown explosives, but declined to accompany Subject. He was not told what was to be blown up, or when. He indicated that Subject resided at (deleted). This information was passed on to (deleted) officers with a list of potential targets. The arresting officers (deleted) were alerted to watch Subjects residence. October 22, 1968: (Deleted) The SDS Peace Center, 2628 East Anaheim, Long Beach, was bombed at 3:00 a.m. this date. When Subject returned to his residence, he was arrested on outstanding traffic warrants and was found to also have traffic warrants from El Monte. Subject was interviewed and admitted the bombing. He indicated that he would take all the 'heat' and not involve anyone else, but would later tell more about his activities. He said that he went alone to the peace center and placed a bomb. He used a cigarette placed inside a paper match book. This was connected to a soda straw that had been filled with match heads and gun powder (#4750 reloading powder) and was connected to a light aluminum detonator. The detonator set off the main charge which was connected with masking tape and consisted of four one quarter pound charges of 'Tem-Type' explosive. He said that he had 'sweat-out' the 'Tem-Type' to weaken the charge and placed it back in an alcove where it would not blow the front glass windows into the street. He left the scene and did not hear it go off; a short while later he drove back by the location and observed the police vehicles and knew the explosion had occurred. Facts were presented to the District Attorney's office, Long Beach, and a written rejection was issued. The facts were then presented to the Long Beach Prosecutor who issued complaint #M87122, charging Malicious Destruction of Property. Subject was taken before Judge Sutherland, Long Beach Municipal Court and pleaded guilty. Probation and sentence was set for November 12, 1968. Subject was remanded to custody in lieu of bail plus the time to be served on the traffic warrants, then to be released to El Monte for the other traffic warrants.

October 24, 1968. Subject was re-interviewed and gave the following information. He is close to Jose Antonio Duarte (ex-Major in Fidel Castro's Army) (Deleted) Major Duarte is trying to get close to the Cuban Power group, but is not trusted by them because of his ex-ties with Castro. Subject denied any connection with Cuban Power except through Duarte. He said he got the explosives from Duarte and that Duarte was supposed to also give him some Cuban Power stickers to leave at the Students for a Democratic Society bombing scene, but that he never received the stickers. Durarte knew he was going to do the bombing and indicated that this type of action could get him into the Cuban Power group.

Subject admitted that he and Duarte went to a Black Militant house or office in Compton some time back and broke windows. Duarte had a smoke grenade but 'got shook' and could not get the pin pulled and they ran.

Subject hinted that he was also responsible for the bombing of the Free Press in Los Angeles about one or two days prior to the Long Beach S.D.S. bombing, but would not fully admit it. JERRY indicated off the record (and after he had plead guilty as indicated above) that there was a girl and another man with him on the S.D.S. bombing but would not identify them.

Additional Information: Shortly after the Subject was arrested for the traffic warrants, he called (Deleted) this original source of this information and asked him to go to Subjects house and remove a box of 'Christmas decorations." Source knew him to mean explosives. He went to this address and talked to Subject's wife who denied knowing about such a box. It was later determined that Subject's wife had overheard the original arresting officers question Subject about the bombing, and it is assumed that she had already disposed of any explosives.

Subject also called from jail to the Wallace for President, North Long Beach Office. It is unknown who he talked to, however, a short while later he had a visitor in jail named Pam Barsby. She is apparently well-known to the jailors and no visitors pass was recorded. The jailors were questioned and stated that they knew her to be working in the above Wallace office from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. each day...

After the above visit to jail by Pam, she called the wife of the original source (deleted) and told her about the visit to jail. She indicated that she and a 'Jerry' who also worked at Wallace Headquarters and owned a Volkswagon was with the Subject when the S.D.S. bombing took place. It is noted that there were two bombs (Deleted) one of which was placed on a red yard stick. It is believed that 'Jerry' set the second bomb. The wife of source said that Pam's true last name is Barsby but that she used the name Barbee while working for Wallace. Pam told her that three of them used the Subject's black Renault on the Long Beach S.D.S. bombing, but that they used her red Corvette to 'blow' the Free Press. She also said that the three of them pulled some type of attack against a Black Militant in Compton. This incident could not be located and may not have been reported, if it did in fact occur.

To date, 'Jerry' has not been identified. Subject admitted having been along with Lloyd E. Pullen on July 28, 1968, (deleted) when they broke windows out of the Peace and Freedom Party office, Long Beach, and committed a Battery on Theodore Glaum, however he said Pullen has never taken part in any bombings.

[CIA D01238 1.9.69 NARA 1993.07.20.14:20:50:370280]

HEMMING 1994: "Jerri or Jeri was a female who worked for the George Wallace people. She was built like a brick shithouse, looked like Angie Dickinson, married, but fucked like a pig. I had her riding in my lap in a Volkswagon. She got off on these bombings. Running around with Lloyd Pullen and fucking HARGRAVES blowing up these fucking buildings and shit, but she was working for the company too." In January 1996 this researcher called HEMMING and asked if HARGRAVES ever called him from jail and asked him to remove some Christmas decorations from his (HARGRAVES) home. HEMMING said, "Yes, he did." When confronted with the significance of this information HEMMING said HARGRAVES called Lloyd Pullen.

HEMMING told this researcher: "Lloyd Pullen was very prominent on TV and in the press as one of the guys that, during the Watts riot, organized a group of like militia that protected a lot of properties in Long Beach. This was a case where I got connected with the guy through Joe Pine. Pullen had an incorporated group and their big thing was getting ready for the next one. He would tell people and he would tell Joe Pine, 'Hey you people who have problems with nigger gangs or any of this kind of bullshit you let me know, we'll do something about it.' So he was favorite with the cops...He was on the Joe Pine Show regularly, called all these people niggers and all kinds of shit. So HARGRAVES had a sort of a welfare thing, lived in the projects. He showed the niggers how to organize. He got the community affairs volunteers all agitated cause there were a lot of Latinos there, and all that kind of shit there. One thing led to another and we had TV cameras, we got him before the county commission, got him on KHG-TV-9, Maria Coles program, Bob Dornan's program. HARGRAVES did some benefits for these people because they were being fucked over by these conservative anti-welfare shitheads. So Pullen was shocked that HARGRAVES was doing all these good things for the niggers.

"I told HARGRAVES when Pullen confronts you with this try to get as much information so we know who his sources are, how accurate his sources are, because I'm dealing with the LA County Sheriff's Intelligence Bureau and they wanted to know what Long Beach Police Department is doing and what all these other people are doing. So Pullen confronted him and practically told him how he wiped his ass the night before. I mean this is up to date accurate fucking information. So HARGRAVES came back on him and said 'You're dealing with top fucking people. Who is it, Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit?' So Pullen figured, 'Wait a minute, what have we got here?' Then they turned him over to Lt. Hendricks of Long Beach Police Department Intelligence who was the chairman of the LEIU. Somebody's giving money to Lt. Hendricks of the LIEU and some operational funds are dispersed out to Pullen and a little bit might get to HARGRAVES. But what is he going to use money for other than gasoline, or this or that? He wasn't allowed to have a car. Then somebody might question how you afford a car when you're living in a fucking project. He has to be poor, white trash. That's his best role. Any money he had an explanation...he had a license to steal - he could have gone down and robbed banks and got away with it - but it would have fucked up the operation. It would have brought the Bureau in...And here's HARGRAVES, we're down in Watts and kicking in the front of one of the Panther operations. We got niggers that are shaking down old folks down in Compton and shit, regular gang bullshit. The cops were happier than shit because we're coming in and fucking these people over. And they think they're bad." According to HEMMING, Pullen was shot by blacks spent a week in the hospital. In a Freedom of Information Act request to the United States Service HEMMING requested: "Reports reflecting my liaison with ROY E. HARGRAVES in Los Angeles California, including:

a) The presence of HARGRAVES as COPE delegate at a reception for Vice President Hubert Humphrey at the Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles.

b) The activities of HARGRAVES with Lloyd Pullen in Long Beach, California area. At the present time there are rabid revivals of accusations and insinuations, certain writers who allege knowledge by my group in a past tragic event. Those revived accusations and insinuations have caused jeopardy to my person, hence my imperative need to review the fore-mentioned material."

The FBI generated two documents on HARGRAVES on January 16, 1969: FBI 100-300-044/MX and FBI 100-300-044.

THEORY: HEMMING, HARGRAVES & THE KING ASSASSINATION

Circa August 15, 1967, a fugitive named James Earl Ray met a man who called himself "Raoul". Evidence suggested "Raoul" was a member of HEMMING'S crew. James Earl Ray served a life sentence for the murder of Martin Luther King. He died in April 1998.James Earl Ray claimed he was framed.

James Earl Ray was born in 1928. The father of James Earl Ray was a criminal. James Earl Ray never graduated from high school, and was ejected from the Army after two years of service. In the early 1950's he began to commit a series of crimes including burglary and forgery. On April 23, 1967, after serving seven years of a 20 year sentence for armed robbery, James Earl Ray escaped from Missouri State Penitentiary by concealing himself in a box that would normally contain bread from the prison bakery. HEMMING told this researcher: "Ray had no ambition. You know what the ambition factor is? Is there anybody on this planet who can say James Earl Ray ever aspired to anything, or thought of any grandiose schemes, or wanted to be somebody? No. He never wanted to be shit. This is the last guy to do a shooting job. Nothing complicated. Nothing that requires heavy thinking. But it would have been a stretch of the imagination to have Castro agents mad at Martin Luther King, right?"

Circa August 15, 1967, James Earl Ray met a man who called himself "Raoul" and said he was a seaman, at the Neptune Tavern in Montreal. Ray claimed they met by chance and they had no mutual friends. Ray said he "sort of let the word get around that he had a little trouble down in the States, that he was looking for I.D. and capital, and just might be available for activities that didn't involve too much risk."

Would James Earl Ray have leaked the fact the he was a fugitive in a public bar? Bar owners often double as police informants. HEMMING told this researcher: "That's what Ray wants you to believe. This is what keeps people secure, that he's not spilling the beans. There are people that would worry, 'Maybe this son-of-a-bitch really found out more than he's ever admitted before the incident itself? Maybe somebody was loose? Maybe this guy really knows some shit? He didn't do it, we know that.'"

Evidence suggested that the brother of James Earl Ray, Jerry Ray, might have told him that "Raoul" was "alright," but James did not want to involve his brother in the Martin Luther King assassination, and so he never came forward with this information. HEMMING told this researcher: "A guy like Ray would say, 'Who told you about me?' You got to have a fucking name. It's got to be somebody that's worthless to you that you can go ahead and burn, and the guy doesn't know you, so it's not traceable. That's made plain right off the bat, 'I know you through so and so, but so and so doesn't know me. A friend of mine knows him and I'm not gonna tell you who the fuck he is.' If it isn't done this way, a guy like Ray would say, 'Boy, this guy's a blabber mouth. He's giving me all his fucking contacts, I know more about him than he does about me, which is a bad way to be.'" HEMMING also stated: "Somebody had to produce some sort of bona fides to prove who the fuck he was and he expects Ray to check the arms of that through his own sources of 'Who the hell am I dealing with here?'"

James Earl Ray described "Raoul" as a 35-year-old blonde or red-haired Latin, 5'8", 140 pounds. He told author William Bradford Huie that "Raoul" was "a Cuban exile." James Earl Ray wrote: "In the spring of 1968 I James Earl Ray was working with agents of the Federal Government, including Raoul. They told me I was helping them to supply arms and guns to the Cuban refugees there to overthrow Castro and the communest I cuba. The reason why I'd made trips to Mexico was in regard to helping the agents of the federal government to supply arms to cuban refugees there to overthrow Castro. The Federal Agents led me to believe that I was working in Memphis in April 1968 for the same purpose. I knew I was working with Federal Agents the way they had me passed across the Mexican and Canadian borders is only one thing that proves they were federal agents. At a later time, if necessary, I will give more extensive proof about the federal agents with whom I was involved. It is a known fact that Agents of federal government and, the Mexican Police knew about my trips to Mexico and protected me there. I knew nothing about King being in Memphis until after King had been killed. I could not argue with the federal agents I worked for becous they would have put me back in the Missouri State Prison at Jefferson City if I failed to take orders from them. I know that the federal agents merly used me as the fall guy when they killed King. I now realize that they had no interest in overthrowing Castro and their whole purpose was to use me to cover up their own crime. Two federal agencies are guilty and I am fully innocent." [FBI 44-38961-5811 Sec. 81]

James Earl Ray had at eight meetings with "Raoul" over the next three weeks. HEMMING told this researcher: "Ray was involved in a homicide with Raoul." The FBI found that Ray was in possession of "Qc351 Photocopies of 4-page hw letter dated at Montreal, Que., signed "Code letter 'G.'"

According to James Earl Ray, at the last meeting, "Raoul" told him to go to Windsor, Canada, where he would give him some packages to smuggle into the United States.

After this, James Earl Ray was paid and told to drive to Birmingham, Alabama, and keep out of sight until "Raoul" arrived. James Earl Ray arrived there August 25, 1967. James Earl Ray opened a safe deposit box at the Birmingham Trust National Bank on August 28, 1967. "Raoul" told James Earl Ray he spent a lot of time in New Orleans and gave him several telephone numbers there. On September 1, 1967, he received a letter from "Raoul" regarding their next meeting. When they met, "Raoul" gave James Earl Ray $2000 and told him to purchase a late model Mustang. James Earl Ray wrote: "I suppose I became involved in some sort of plot to kill King when I first took those packages into the United States from Canada. I would think it had all been decided before the car was bought in Birmingham as no one would have given me three grand just to haul narcotics across the border." [Look 11.26.68] HEMMING told this researcher: "You give them a couple of test runs. It's gonna be something that brings back a couple of bucks and pays for your expenses in recruiting these people. Now he's gonna be hesitant to admit this because it could be fingerprints back to other crimes that have no statute of limitations, namely homicide."

James Earl Ray said that his next assignment (mid-October 1967), was to order several hundred dollars worth of photographic equipment then drive down to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where he was to meet "Raoul". The HSCA stated that Ray planned to make pornographic movies in Mexico using a remote controlled camera. Ray met "Raoul" at a hotel there, then followed him across the border, into Laredo, Texas. "Raoul" took a cab and they met in Laredo, where "Raoul" gave him a spare tire which James Earl Ray was supposed to smuggle into Mexico. "Raoul" rode with Ray as they again crossed the border into Mexico. James Earl Ray: "At Mexican customs he got out and waited beside the building. Following his instructions, I asked the customs men for a Tourist Card, telling them I was going to the interior of Mexico, not just to Nuevo Laredo. (No tourist card is needed to visit the border towns in Mexico; only if you are going into the interior.) When the Customs men started to search the car, I gave them $3 as Raoul had told me to do, and they stopped the search and put a mark on everything." "Raoul" rejoined James Earl Ray in Mexico, transferred the tire to the automobile from which it originally came. James Earl Ray drove the car through a checkpoint in the interior of Mexico. He received $2000 for this trip. HEMMING told this researcher: "Raoul was a cut out. He's a guy you can trust with money, he's a guy a you can trust with the location of an arms cache or a seller of select type weapons. He's a guy that gets a very simple job done and does what he's told to do and not ask questions or even gives a shit why it's being done."

In November 1967 James Earl Ray drove to Los Angeles, where he moved into a cheap hotel. His associates in Los Angeles included Rita Stein, whose husband had overdosed on morphine. [FBI LA-44-1574]. The cousin of Rita Stein, Myrial Tomaso, had been arrested on seven felony charges involving narcotics and forgery. [FBI 44-382861-5553] New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison described Rita Stein's brother, Charles Stein [born, May 11, 1929], as a "good boy who keeps bad company." Charles Stein was married to Mickie Medina, the "Queen of Vice of New Orleans" from 1962 to 1963. He had one arrest linked to prostitution. [FBI 157-10672-654]

Journalist Louis Lomax wrote that in Los Angeles Ray was associated with a blonde woman named "Jerri" who frequented the Sultan Room bar and the Rabbit's Foot bar. "Jerri" was unknown at both these establishments and the FBI concluded: "Investigation has not identified any Jerri as an associate of Ray." Lomax later believed this woman was Dyrell Dennis. The FBI: "When initially contacted on April 25, 1968, she advised she had no knowledge of James Earl Ray and through viewing his photographs said she did not know him or anyone named Eric Starvo Galt. Subsequently, she was recontacted on April 27, 1968, at the Belmont Hotel, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, She advised that she had resided at the St. Francis Hotel, Los Angeles, California, from March 1, 1968, to March 9, 1968. One night in the Sultan Room, Hollywood Boulevard, she was approached by a man who introduced himself as Eric (Last Name Unknown). This person drank screwdrivers and claimed to have worked with computers. He had in his possession a large sum of money in $10 and $20 bills. She talked him into giving her a $20 bill after which they left the Sultan Room and went to another club where they continued to drink and then went to Eric's room, #403 in the Saint Francis Hotel. As they drank he told her on more than one occasion that he could become violent. She began to fear that he might possibly be a psychopath (deleted). Under pretext, she left the Saint Francis Hotel. Subsequently she again encountered Eric at the Sultan Room at which time he asked for and she returned his $20 bill. She stated she has not seen this person since that time." [FBI ME 44-1987]

Myrial Tomaso convinced James Earl Ray to take her cousin, Charles Stein, and two children, with him to New Orleans. James Earl Ray agreed to drive Charles Stein and the kids to New Orleans, but insisted that Myrial Tomaso and Charles Stein first register in the Independent party of George C. Wallace. On December 13, 1967, Ray sent a letter to the Birmingham Trust National Bank "enclosing the keys to the safe deposit box, wherein he advised the bank that he was living out of Birmingham and was surrendering his safe deposit box. She advised she made a notation to this effect on the Record of Access to Ray's safe deposit box and that she also put on there that he lives in Baton Rouge. Miss Battle advised she does not recall anything specific in the letter indicating that Ray was residing at Baton Rouge, and that she believes she obtained this information from the postmark on the envelope in which this letter was received. She advised that this envelope has been destroyed, however, to the best of her knowledge, a copy of the letter would be maintained in the Safe Deposit Box Section." [FBI BH 44-1740]

Ray, Stein, and the two children left Los Angeles circa December 14, 1967. They arrived in New Orleans on December 15, 1967.

The HSCA reported: "Charles Stein recalled that James Earl Ray was definitely going to New Orleans for reasons of his own and that he was not making the trip merely to accommodate Rita..." The FBI claimed that Charles Stein told the Bureau that he never heard James Earl Ray mention anyone named "Raoul," however, Charles Stein also stated, several times during an FBI interview, that "he recalled James Earl Ray mentioning the name 'Raoul.'Charles Stein was confronted, during this initial interview with the HSCA, with an FBI interview which reflected his statement that the person he [James Earl Ray] was going to see had an Italian-sounding name - a well known name in New Orleans. Stein agreed that Raoul was not Italian-sounding, and stated that perhaps he was dodging the FBI's questions." [HSCA MLK Vol, 13 p273] During his later testimony before the HSCA, Charles Stein was asked if James Earl Ray had mentioned the name "Raoul" prior to the Martin Luther King assassination. He stated: "I think that he did."

Charles Stein thought that James Earl Ray told him that he called New Orleans, in advance, to let them know when he would arrive. This call was made after James Earl Ray pulled off the road outside of Houston, Texas. He stated that in the evening of December 16, 1967, Ray made a telephone call from a public coin box phone. Ray talked for quite some time. Stein was of the opinion this call was made somewhere in the vicinity of Houston, Texas. He also stated it was dark at the time as he can recall the light in the phone booth shining down on Ray while he made the call. Stein advised he did not recall the general surroundings of the area in which the phone booth was located; or whether it was in a gas station, shopping center or standing by itself. He did think, however, if he saw the phone booth again he would probably recall it. Stein was questioned further regarding this phone call and in response to questions, advised this phone call was the only one he actually observed being made by Ray. However, at several other stops they made, Ray was out of his sight for short periods of time and during those times Ray could have made other phone calls. Stein advised that when Ray returned to the car after making the phone call he appeared to be tense and somewhat deep in thought. This condition lasted about 20 minutes or a half hour. When asked if he recalled traveling through Houston, Texas, Stein stated he did not recall passing through Houston, Texas, but commented that he was sleeping off and on during this time." [FBI LA 44-1547]

The FBI re-interviewed Stein: "He can recollect one telephone call made by James Earl Ray while they were en route to New Orleans. Stein advised that the call was made from a telephone booth located near Houston, Texas, west of Houston. He advised that at approximately 9:00 p.m. on December 16, 1967, Ray was driving and turned off the freeway onto an access road paralleling the freeway heading toward Houston. He stated Ray stopped at a phone booth by a service station. He does not recollect the particular gas sold at this station. He advised that a liquor store was next to the service station, but does not recollect on what side...Stein advised that at the time of the call he bought a cup of coffee in the service station and some candy or gum in the liquor store. Stein advised that the above information is accurate. He advised that he did not intentionally withhold this information upon prior interviews, and only recently remembered the details of the phone call." [FBI LA 44-1574 4.24.68]

Another FBI document stated: "Stein has indicated that en route from somewhere in Texas Ray made one or two long distance telephone calls from coin phones and also indicated he was going to contact either architectural or contracting firm." The FBI contacted numerous construction firms in Louisiana but none of them had ever heard of Ray or any of his name variants. Note: HEMMING said HARGRAVES worked on construction jobs with Richard Whatley in Baton Rouge in 1967.

The FBI investigated James Earl Ray's calls to "Raoul" by checking the toll records of all the telephone booths James Earl Ray might have used while traveling from Los Angeles to New Orleans. It concluded: "An exhaustive search of countless telephone records, numbers and subscribers produced nothing." [FBI 44-8861-2014] Sometimes it was impossible to check on a pay phone because the toll records had been destroyed. [FBI 44-38861-2460] In many cases it was impossible for this researcher to determine if certain calls were, in fact, significant, because of heavy deletions. On December 15, 1967, a call was made to (deleted) in Montgomery, Louisiana, from an ENCO Station in Texas. James Earl Ray believed he might have made the call to New Orleans from a ENCO Service Station. On December 16, 1967, a call was made from the vicinity of San Antonio, Texas, to New Orleans. [FBI 44-38861-3105] The FBI discovered that on December 17, 1967, someone placed a call to 522-8495 in New Orleans. This number belonged to Hilda De Los Reyes of 1410 St. Andrew Street. De Los Reyes, a Cuban exile who spoke little English, denied ever receiving a telephone call from Texas and was unable to identify a photograph of James Earl Ray. [FBI NO 157-10673 5.10.68]

The FBI checked every telephone call from pay telephones in the area of Houston, Texas, for calls to New Orleans on December 17, 1967. One of these calls was to 522-8495 in New Orleans. The FBI reported: "(Deleted) [Hilda De Los Reyes] Apartment 7, (Deleted) [1410 St. Andrews] was contacted and furnished the following information:

"She advised her telephone number is 522-8495, however, she advised that to the best of her knowledge she has not received any long distance telephone calls from Texas during December 1967, or at any other time. She advised she has no relatives, friends or any other persons known to her to be residing in Texas. In addition, she advised that she is divorced from her husband and lives at her present address with her two sons, ages 10 and 18. Her oldest son is working, but she stated that he also has no friends or relatives in the Texas area. She advised after viewing all available photographs of James Earl Ray that such a person was completely unknown to her by either name or photograph. It was noted during interview of (Deleted) that she was of Cuban extraction and spoke broken English. The interview was conducted with some difficulty, although she was emphatic in her denial or herself or anyone else ever receiving any long distance telephone calls from Texas to her present telephone number at any time." [FBI NO 157-10673 5.10.68] The FBI withheld the called number of many of the pay phone calls made from the vicinity of Houston, Texas, to New Orleans. [FBI 44-38861-3132] The FBI reported that on December 17, 1967, a call was placed to (Deleted) Baton Rouge, La., from 330 E. Pierce. [FBI 44-38861-3105]

When Charles Stein and James Earl Ray reached New Orleans, James Earl Ray claimed he called the New Orleans telephone number given to him by "Raoul." James Earl Ray: "I was asked where I was staying then told where Raoul would meet me...He wanted me to help take some guns into Mexico and there would be ten or twelve grand in it for me plus the usual promise of travel documents. During the conversation he said after I got to Cuba I could go anyplace in the world. I told him I wasn't interested in going to Cuba and I wanted the travel documents and part of the money before I went to Mexico. The project would start about the first of May - he would write me as to the specific date later on...Late in February he wrote and asked me to meet him at the bar where we had met before in New Orleans."

The bar they were to meet in, the Le Bunny Lounge on Canal Street, was located across the street from the Hotel Monteleone, which was owned by William Monteleone, a former member of the Cuban Revolutionary Front. [Monteleone, William telephone 504-288-0643, 522-8923 hotel 523-3341] William Bradford Huie reported: "The Monteleone family has as their guests, pilots who had been ransomed from Cuba who had participated in the invasion of the Bay of Pigs. Huie related that Ray on his trip to New Orleans with Stein had met unknown, unnamed parties in a bar from which diagrams made by Ray, Huie concluded was across the street from the Monteleone."

HEMMING told this researcher: "This could be significant. They burn trails by making those kind of mistakes." James Earl Ray waited all day for "Raoul", but he did not appear. James Earl Ray was back in Los Angeles on December 18, 1967. He remained there until March 1968 when he left for New Orleans. When he called "Raoul's" telephone number he was told that "Raoul" had gone to Birmingham, Alabama. He met him there and the two men drove to Atlanta (a dry cleaning ticket placed him there on April 1, 1968) and then back to Birmingham.

On April 2, 1968, James Earl Ray was instructed to rent a motel room and he did so using the name "Willard." He was also told to purchase a deer rifle at the Aeromarine Supply Company. "Raoul" examined the weapon and determined it was unsatisfactory. James Earl Ray returned it and purchased a 30.06 rifle which "Raoul" accepted. The Aeromarine Supply Company was coincidentally located in the vicinity of the headquarters of General Reed Doster, who assembled pilots for the Bay of Pigs invasion.

On April 4, 1968, the two men then drove to Memphis, Tennessee, where a room had been reserved for James Earl Ray at the Rebel Motel under the alias of "Willard." According to James Earl Ray, after he checked in, "Raoul told me to rent the room at [a] rooming house at 3:00 p.m. I rented a room from the woman [Bessie Brewer]. I signed my name as John Willard...then I went downstairs and found Raoul in the tavern [Jim's Grill]. He had told me to get him some binoculars so I went up to the store and bought them and when I got back Raoul was up in the room."

James Earl Ray first claimed he was in a gas station, having a tire repaired, at the time of the shooting.

According to William Bradford Huie Ray stated: "I bought the binoculars. I took the rifle up into his room at the rooming house. I was sitting in the Mustang when I heard a shot. In a minute or so Raoul came running down the stairs [carrying my zipper bag which he threw down on the sidewalk]. Then he jumped in the back seat, covered up with a sheet, and we took off." "Raoul" jumped out at a traffic light eight blocks from the scene of the shooting.

Ray drove back to the flop house and saw numerous police cars parked in front of it. He thought the law was on to "Raoul" and he headed for a pay phone to call "Raoul's" number in New Orleans. He turned on the car radio and found out Martin Luther King had been killed and the police were looking for a white man in a white Mustang.

William Bradford Huie stated that Ray told him "he was to be in the room and to get to the room so that they might meet an unnamed, unknown party and discuss the sale of weapons."

James Earl Ray had no alibi witnesses for any of these scenarios, however, version two seems the most plausible because it does not require any witnesses. "Raoul" would also stick to Ray as long and as closely as possible to further dirty him up. HEMMING told this researcher: "Ray might have guessed. What is Ray's thinking as to 'What the fuck am I doing in Memphis?' He has to have a reason for being there. He reads in the newspapers that King is there, and says to himself, 'Wait a minute, nah, that couldn't be.' He's not going to admit to that kind of shit now, he's not going to admit to that. Maybe he tried to check out to see 'What are these fuckers up to that they're gonna put me in for a nickel or a dime and I'm gonna be doing a big job. Wait a minute, I don't want this fucking tail-coating bullshit, turnip truck bullshit, where I do the big fucking job and these people get all the goddamn money.' There are people like that in the industry. They try to figure out if there's been any leaks that would endanger them, they try to guess who the target is. They check the newspapers to see who the target might be. Of course he would [have