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H.L. Hunt: Motive & Opportunity
After being summarily thrown out of the upcoming 1964 World's Fair project, presumably at the instruction of JFK himself, billionaire H.L. Hunt turned to John Curington, his attorney, and said, "I've about got a belly-full of those Kennedy boys. They both need to go." A few months later John Kennedy would be dead, followed by his brother a few years later. Formerly undisclosed and privileged information suggests that one man could have had the motive and opportunity to influence the untimely deaths of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, along with the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. For the first time, John Curington, lawyer to Haroldson Lafayette "H.L." Hunt Jr., divulges once-private information to author Mitchel Whitington, that substantiates the fact that a conspiracy could have indeed existed. Come explore a previously-untold story - the story of John Curington - that may fill gaps in the tragic tales of these important national figures, and provide information that has never been unearthed before. Read it for yourself, and be the judge as to whether H.L. Hunt had both the motive and opportunity to have influenced the deaths of such prominent men.
163 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 2, 2018
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March 28, 2024
In the 1950s and 60s, H.L. Hunt was the richest man in the world. He hosted a conservative radio program called Life Line which told the world about the evils of JFK, RFK, MLK, and labor unions. He wanted to promote his radio show at the 1964 New York World's Fair and spent millions of dollars on roller coasters and other investments, however his contract was cancelled and he lost all the money. Vice President LBJ told him the decision had been made by a "higher authority", which Hunt took to mean President JFK. On the plane ride back to Dallas, Hunt told John Curington, the author of this book, "I've about got a bellyful of those Kennedy boys. They both need to go."
Shortly after, Hunt sent $70,000 in cash (equivalent to half a million in today's dollars) to someone in Chicago. He didn't want Curington to know who the money was going to, but it was likely shady since legitimate business wouldn't have been carried out with cash. JFK was assassinated a few months later. While Hunt's friend Lyndon Johnson was in office, he kept MLK and RFK in check, but once he decided not to run in 1968, MLK and RFK were both killed within months of each other.
John Curington was H. L. Hunt's right-hand man, his personal assistant, and the door between their offices was never closed. Hunt was one of the world's largest private landowners, private cattle owners, private oil and gas producers, food producers, petroleum refinery producers, private employers, and farm product producers. At the time of his death in 1974, he was worth $25 billion in today's dollars.
H.L. Hunt was married to three women at the same time and had fourteen children between the three of them. He believed Jews controlled Wall Street, banks, press, radio, and TV and were spreading communism throughout the US.
Hunt attended both the Republican and Democratic conventions and tried to get the president elected who would be best for his business. At the 1960 Democratic National Convention, he wanted LBJ to win, but JFK got the nomination. LBJ didn't want to be Kennedy's vice president, but Hunt convinced him to join the ticket as he'd be in a good position to succeed Kennedy.
Hunt was a member of First Baptist Church in Dallas and was friends with the pastor W. A. Criswell, one of the most influential religious leaders in the United States. He convinced Criswell to give a sermon denouncing JFK for being Catholic and had Curington mail out 200,000 copies of the speech to protestants all over the country. Hunt thought this would cause Catholics to unite and vote for JFK, and also cause protestants to denounce Criswell.
Hunt's radio program, Life Line, was a 15 minute program aired seven days a week on over 500 radio stations with an estimated 5 million listeners. It cost Hunt $6,000 a day. The program railed against communists, minorities, hippies, and the welfare state. John F. Kennedy was a target of the show both before and after he became president. Hunt accused him of being a communist because he wanted to close tax loopholes for oil companies, which could cost Hunt millions. He claimed Medicare would lead to death panels. On the day of JFK's assassination, Life Line warned its listeners that leftists were trying to take their guns away.
His program Life Line was meant to encourage a certain type of listener to assassinate public figures Hunt disagreed with, but it didn't work very well, so Hunt wanted to establish what he called a "Removal Group" which would be divided into four parts. The first group would come up with an enemies list. The second group would research the people on the list, including their daily habits. The third group would develop a plan to kill the person, preferably making it look like an accident. The fourth group would carry out the plan. The four groups should act independently of each other to prevent incriminating each other. As far as Curington knows, Hunt never carried out his Removal Group plan. It was all just talk.
Months before shooting JFK, Oswald tried to shoot Hunt's friend General Edwin Walker, but missed. A bit strange that he'd shoot at an anti-Kennedy conservative, then shoot Kennedy months later.
When Kennedy was assassinated, many people thought Hunt was behind it. He laid low for a while and stopped playing anti-Kennedy messages on his Life Line radio program. He asked Curington to check out what kind of security the police had around Oswald. Curington reported back that there weren't any heightened security measures. Hunt then told him to send organized crime boss Joe Civello to his house.
In past discussions, Civello gave Hunt advice for how to get away with murder. First, hire an unknown to do the act, then kill the unknown. If the unknown isn't killed, convince him he can't turn against you. At all costs, never let the unknown testify in court. Always make him plead guilty.
Later that morning, Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner and associate of Civello, killed Lee Harvey Oswald for no obvious reason. He had two transcripts of the Life Line radio program in his pocket when he was taken into custody. Hunt kept tabs on who visited Ruby in jail and who sent him mail. Ruby was sentenced to death for killing Oswald, but the conviction was overturned due to legal technicalities. Before he could be re-tried, Ruby died of cancer.
A letter from Oswald to Hunt was discovered after the assassination. The letter was turned over to the FBI. It's a short, vague letter in which Oswald asks to meet with Hunt to get more information about his position before any further action is taken.
On a Saturday shortly after the assassination, Hunt instructed Curington to empty the Hunt Oil office buildings of any employees and send them home for the day. Hunt then showed up and told Curington a woman would come to the lobby. Curington should not speak to her or acknowledge her presence. The woman who appeared and got on the elevator was Oswald's widow. Curington doesn't know why Hunt met with her or what they talked about.
Hunt believed Martin Luther King was a communist and his Life Line program regularly attacked him. Hunt was worried MLK would call for a boycott against his food companies in retaliation. The Hunt food division largely catered to African Americans and was accused of providing substandard food. A boycott could cost him millions.
Within minutes of MLK's assassination, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who also considered MLK a communist and threat to the nation, called Hunt and told him about the assassination. A couple days later, Hoover asked for Hunt to come to Washington immediately, which he did. Curington never learned the reason for the trip, although Hoover and Hunt had several conversations afterward. Hoover was adamant the murder of MLK be blamed on James Earl Ray. Ray had been seen fleeing the scene of the crime and a rifle and binoculars with his fingerprints on them had also been found. Hunt was worried he could be indicted if Ray was allowed to testify, since his Life Line program could have influenced Ray to shoot King.
Percy Foreman, a lawyer from Texas, flew out to Memphis and convinced Ray to fire his lawyer and hire him instead. Hunt paid Foreman $125,000 ($1 million in today's dollars) to get Ray to plead guilty, which he did. Three days later, Ray asked for a new attorney and a change of plea, but the judge denied him. Ray denied killing King until his death. He claimed he only purchased the rifle for someone else.
Attorney General Robert Kennedy was investigating LBJ for corruption when his brother was assassinated. It was suspicious to him that JFK was killed in LBJ's home state during a trip LBJ had encouraged. Once LBJ was president, the corruption investigation against him immediately stopped. In 1968, RFK was likely going to be the next president, which would be bad for Hunt's business.
Two weeks before RFK's assassination, Hunt and Curington went to California. Hunt wanted to know everything about RFK's time in the state: where he went and who he met with. Hunt had a private meeting with someone in California without Curington and never mentioned who it was or what it was concerning, which was a bit unusual.
Sirhan Sirhan shot RFK while he was celebrating his win for the California primary. Curington was told about the shooting five minutes after it happened. When he told Hunt about it, Hunt expressed no interest one way or the other.
A few weeks later, Hunt told Curington to send $40,000 ($300,000 in today's dollars) to someone in California, but it should be delivered by someone not readily identifiable with the Hunt organization. Curington never found out who the money was for.
In the 1960's, union organizer Jimmy Hoffa was one of the most powerful men in the country. Hunt hated unions. Whenever a union organizer would visit a city where he had a food processing plant, he'd send Curington to that city to try to make the union organizer leave town, such as by having the chief of police watch the union organizer closely for any possible violation that would lead to arrest.
Hoffa had connections with organized crime. In 1964, Hoffa was convicted of bribery and fraud and sent to prison. Hunt offered to use his influence to get Hoffa released from prison and pardoned by Nixon. In return, no union organizers would ever enter a Hunt business. Curington delivered $125,000 on Hunt's behalf to Hoffa's attorney. Additional payments were made periodically.
On July 30, 1975, Hoffa disappeared from a restaurant parking lot leaving his car behind. He was never seen again. Hunt had died eight months before this, so he wasn't involved in this murder.
I find it interesting that while Hunt was politically conservative, his objection to JFK, RFK, and MLK was more about how they could harm his business than anything else. There's no smoking gun evidence here that Hunt was directly involved in the assassinations of Martin Luther King or the Kennedy brothers, but he sure looks suspicious. He certainly seemed to be involved in bribery and shady backroom deals, but we'll probably never know for sure if H. L. Hunt was involved in murder for hire or not.
Shortly after, Hunt sent $70,000 in cash (equivalent to half a million in today's dollars) to someone in Chicago. He didn't want Curington to know who the money was going to, but it was likely shady since legitimate business wouldn't have been carried out with cash. JFK was assassinated a few months later. While Hunt's friend Lyndon Johnson was in office, he kept MLK and RFK in check, but once he decided not to run in 1968, MLK and RFK were both killed within months of each other.
John Curington was H. L. Hunt's right-hand man, his personal assistant, and the door between their offices was never closed. Hunt was one of the world's largest private landowners, private cattle owners, private oil and gas producers, food producers, petroleum refinery producers, private employers, and farm product producers. At the time of his death in 1974, he was worth $25 billion in today's dollars.
H.L. Hunt was married to three women at the same time and had fourteen children between the three of them. He believed Jews controlled Wall Street, banks, press, radio, and TV and were spreading communism throughout the US.
Hunt attended both the Republican and Democratic conventions and tried to get the president elected who would be best for his business. At the 1960 Democratic National Convention, he wanted LBJ to win, but JFK got the nomination. LBJ didn't want to be Kennedy's vice president, but Hunt convinced him to join the ticket as he'd be in a good position to succeed Kennedy.
Hunt was a member of First Baptist Church in Dallas and was friends with the pastor W. A. Criswell, one of the most influential religious leaders in the United States. He convinced Criswell to give a sermon denouncing JFK for being Catholic and had Curington mail out 200,000 copies of the speech to protestants all over the country. Hunt thought this would cause Catholics to unite and vote for JFK, and also cause protestants to denounce Criswell.
Hunt's radio program, Life Line, was a 15 minute program aired seven days a week on over 500 radio stations with an estimated 5 million listeners. It cost Hunt $6,000 a day. The program railed against communists, minorities, hippies, and the welfare state. John F. Kennedy was a target of the show both before and after he became president. Hunt accused him of being a communist because he wanted to close tax loopholes for oil companies, which could cost Hunt millions. He claimed Medicare would lead to death panels. On the day of JFK's assassination, Life Line warned its listeners that leftists were trying to take their guns away.
His program Life Line was meant to encourage a certain type of listener to assassinate public figures Hunt disagreed with, but it didn't work very well, so Hunt wanted to establish what he called a "Removal Group" which would be divided into four parts. The first group would come up with an enemies list. The second group would research the people on the list, including their daily habits. The third group would develop a plan to kill the person, preferably making it look like an accident. The fourth group would carry out the plan. The four groups should act independently of each other to prevent incriminating each other. As far as Curington knows, Hunt never carried out his Removal Group plan. It was all just talk.
Months before shooting JFK, Oswald tried to shoot Hunt's friend General Edwin Walker, but missed. A bit strange that he'd shoot at an anti-Kennedy conservative, then shoot Kennedy months later.
When Kennedy was assassinated, many people thought Hunt was behind it. He laid low for a while and stopped playing anti-Kennedy messages on his Life Line radio program. He asked Curington to check out what kind of security the police had around Oswald. Curington reported back that there weren't any heightened security measures. Hunt then told him to send organized crime boss Joe Civello to his house.
In past discussions, Civello gave Hunt advice for how to get away with murder. First, hire an unknown to do the act, then kill the unknown. If the unknown isn't killed, convince him he can't turn against you. At all costs, never let the unknown testify in court. Always make him plead guilty.
Later that morning, Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner and associate of Civello, killed Lee Harvey Oswald for no obvious reason. He had two transcripts of the Life Line radio program in his pocket when he was taken into custody. Hunt kept tabs on who visited Ruby in jail and who sent him mail. Ruby was sentenced to death for killing Oswald, but the conviction was overturned due to legal technicalities. Before he could be re-tried, Ruby died of cancer.
A letter from Oswald to Hunt was discovered after the assassination. The letter was turned over to the FBI. It's a short, vague letter in which Oswald asks to meet with Hunt to get more information about his position before any further action is taken.
On a Saturday shortly after the assassination, Hunt instructed Curington to empty the Hunt Oil office buildings of any employees and send them home for the day. Hunt then showed up and told Curington a woman would come to the lobby. Curington should not speak to her or acknowledge her presence. The woman who appeared and got on the elevator was Oswald's widow. Curington doesn't know why Hunt met with her or what they talked about.
Hunt believed Martin Luther King was a communist and his Life Line program regularly attacked him. Hunt was worried MLK would call for a boycott against his food companies in retaliation. The Hunt food division largely catered to African Americans and was accused of providing substandard food. A boycott could cost him millions.
Within minutes of MLK's assassination, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who also considered MLK a communist and threat to the nation, called Hunt and told him about the assassination. A couple days later, Hoover asked for Hunt to come to Washington immediately, which he did. Curington never learned the reason for the trip, although Hoover and Hunt had several conversations afterward. Hoover was adamant the murder of MLK be blamed on James Earl Ray. Ray had been seen fleeing the scene of the crime and a rifle and binoculars with his fingerprints on them had also been found. Hunt was worried he could be indicted if Ray was allowed to testify, since his Life Line program could have influenced Ray to shoot King.
Percy Foreman, a lawyer from Texas, flew out to Memphis and convinced Ray to fire his lawyer and hire him instead. Hunt paid Foreman $125,000 ($1 million in today's dollars) to get Ray to plead guilty, which he did. Three days later, Ray asked for a new attorney and a change of plea, but the judge denied him. Ray denied killing King until his death. He claimed he only purchased the rifle for someone else.
Attorney General Robert Kennedy was investigating LBJ for corruption when his brother was assassinated. It was suspicious to him that JFK was killed in LBJ's home state during a trip LBJ had encouraged. Once LBJ was president, the corruption investigation against him immediately stopped. In 1968, RFK was likely going to be the next president, which would be bad for Hunt's business.
Two weeks before RFK's assassination, Hunt and Curington went to California. Hunt wanted to know everything about RFK's time in the state: where he went and who he met with. Hunt had a private meeting with someone in California without Curington and never mentioned who it was or what it was concerning, which was a bit unusual.
Sirhan Sirhan shot RFK while he was celebrating his win for the California primary. Curington was told about the shooting five minutes after it happened. When he told Hunt about it, Hunt expressed no interest one way or the other.
A few weeks later, Hunt told Curington to send $40,000 ($300,000 in today's dollars) to someone in California, but it should be delivered by someone not readily identifiable with the Hunt organization. Curington never found out who the money was for.
In the 1960's, union organizer Jimmy Hoffa was one of the most powerful men in the country. Hunt hated unions. Whenever a union organizer would visit a city where he had a food processing plant, he'd send Curington to that city to try to make the union organizer leave town, such as by having the chief of police watch the union organizer closely for any possible violation that would lead to arrest.
Hoffa had connections with organized crime. In 1964, Hoffa was convicted of bribery and fraud and sent to prison. Hunt offered to use his influence to get Hoffa released from prison and pardoned by Nixon. In return, no union organizers would ever enter a Hunt business. Curington delivered $125,000 on Hunt's behalf to Hoffa's attorney. Additional payments were made periodically.
On July 30, 1975, Hoffa disappeared from a restaurant parking lot leaving his car behind. He was never seen again. Hunt had died eight months before this, so he wasn't involved in this murder.
I find it interesting that while Hunt was politically conservative, his objection to JFK, RFK, and MLK was more about how they could harm his business than anything else. There's no smoking gun evidence here that Hunt was directly involved in the assassinations of Martin Luther King or the Kennedy brothers, but he sure looks suspicious. He certainly seemed to be involved in bribery and shady backroom deals, but we'll probably never know for sure if H. L. Hunt was involved in murder for hire or not.
March 9, 2024
I haven't seen much about the book, but any extra facts about his world will be a very interesting lens. He hung with an odd crowd
and the closest someone ever got to portraying him was Ed Begley in Billion Dollar Brain, back in the 1960s, as the Texan with the supercomputer and trying to start World War III.
........
Currington Interview
Greg Doudna: And General Edwin Walker was living in Dallas also?
(General Edwin Walker, 1909-1993, was a Dallas-based nationwide conservative cause célèbre after calling for resistance, which turned violent, to the U.S. government in Sept. 1962 in Oxford, Mississippi. President Kennedy had sent five hundred federal marshals to enforce court orders compelling the University of Mississippi to enroll fully-qualified African-American applicant James Meredith who was being refused admission because he was black. In a speech of Oct. 26, 1963, in Jackson, Mississippi, Walker said, “The best definition I can find for Communism is ‘Kennedy liberalism’ … [Kennedy is] the greatest leader of the anti-Christ movement.”)
John Curington: General Walker would be considered a friend of mine, and a friend of Mr. Hunt’s. He was a visitor from time to time to our offices. Each time he came in I would visit with him, Mr. Hunt would visit with him, and it was not uncommon for him to pick up Life Line materials that we had used in a broadcast, or Life Line materials that were available to us that had not been put into a radio transcript.
........
One of Hunt’s sons, Bunker Hunt, helped pay the cost of a black-bordered full-page newspaper ad accusing Kennedy of traitorous actions.
Its headline was: “Welcome Mr. Kennedy: Why Are You a Communist?” The black borders were like a funeral notice.
This ad appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Friday, November 22, 1963.
It was seeing that ad which prompted Kennedy to remark to Jacqueline at their hotel that morning, “We’re heading into nut country.”
........
One of Hunt's chief allies, Allen Zoll, said that since 1936 Hunt advocated deporting all African Americans to Africa. For this reason, Hunt supplied Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad continuous financial support due to the latter's belief in racial separation from whites.
Malcolm X Exposes Nation of Islam's Secret Relationship with KKK & H.L. Hunt
........
who was in his circle?
................
Dick Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1992)
A White House memorandum prepared for JFK in mid-August 1963 estimated that the radical right spent as much as $25 million annually, supported by about 70 foundations, 113 corporations, 25 utility companies, and 250 identifiable individuals.
In the thick of it all, and much more, was Charles Willoughby.
While his mentor, General MacArthur, passed into quiet retirement and was occasionally sought by Kennedy for advice, Willoughby approached his seventieth birthday with samurai swords placed strategically next to his desk.
Willoughby's holy war against the "Red Menace" found him sitting on the boards of most of the major conservative groups, and reaching into Europe and Latin America to start his own International Committee for the Defense of Christian Culture...
Willoughby's publisher and friend Billy James Hargis was a short, portly, double-chinned fellow in his midthirties who gained much of his financial support from H. L. Hunt and other wealthy oilmen.
Along with Willoughby, who was his Washington eyes and ears, another of Hargis's advisory committee members was retired lieutenant general Pedro del Valle, US Marine commander in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
After the Korean War, del Valle had become vice president of ITT's Latin American operations.
In September 1961 Hargis announced that a secret fraternity to coordinate right-wing activities would soon be formed.
Then, on March 21,1962, a carefully selected group was called together in Washington. ]
No press representatives were allowed at the founding session of the Anti-Communist Liaison, which brought together about one hundred delegates representing some seventy-five right-wing groups at the Washington Hotel.
Named as its chairman and operating head was Edward Hunter, a National Advisory Board member of Young Americans for Freedom.
The new group's insider was US representative John Rousselot, a John Birch Society spokesman and Christian Crusade board member from Los Angeles.
It also had a Southern California "outsider," Colonel William P. Gale, yet another ex-MacArthur man. In 1962, as California state chairman of the Constitution Party, Colonel Gale announced his candidacy for the governorship on a platform calling for the abolition of all income taxes. He also organized, soon after the pivotal springtime meeting in Washington, a paramilitary outfit.
................
Charles Willoughby
Adolf Tscheppe-Weidenbach, the son of Baron von Tscheppe-Weidenbach from Baden, Germany, and Emma Willoughby, was born in 1892. After attending the University of Heidelberg, Willoughby moved to the United States in 1910 and became known as Charles Willoughby.
Willoughby joined the United States Army and served with Company K, 5th U.S. Infantry, and eventually reached the rank of sergeant. He was commissioned a major in May 1914 in the Officers Volunteer Corps. During the First World War Willoughby served on the Western Front.
In October 1919 Captain Willoughby was reassigned to the 24th Infantry serving at Columbus, New Mexico.
His next assignment took him overseas to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where again he served as both company and battalion commander in the 65th Infantry from February 1921 to May 1923. He now joined the Military Intelligence Division, as served as Military Attaché duties in Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.
In August, 1929, Willoughby started a course at the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After graduating two years later, he stayed on at the school as an instructor, teaching the subjects of Intelligence and Military History. He also edited the Command and General Staff School Quarterly.
In 1936 he was appointed as an instructor in the Infantry School at Fort Benning. Later he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He developed extreme right-wing views and once delivered a speech to Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco at a lunch in Madrid.
He also praised Benito Mussolini: "Historical judgment, freed from the emotional haze of the moment, will credit Mussolini with wiping out a memory of defeat by re-establishing the traditional military supremacy of the white race."
Willoughby became logistics officer in the Headquarters of the Philippine Department in Manila where he served under General Douglas MacArthur.
Promoted to the rank of major general, Willoughby served as General MacArthur's Chief of Intelligence in the General Headquarters, Southwest Pacific Area (1941-1951).
The Japanese Air Force attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on the 7th December 1941. The following day they carried out air strikes on the Philippines and destroyed half of MacArthur's air force.
MacArthur was much criticized for this as he had been told to move his airforce after the raid on Hawaii the previous day.
The Japanese Army also invaded the Philippines and they soon held the three air bases in northern Luzon. On 22nd December the 14th Army landed at Lingayen Gulf and quickly gained control of Manila from the inexperienced Filipino troops. Although only 57,000 Japanese soldiers were landed on Luzon it had little difficulty capturing the island.
General Douglas MacArthur now ordered a general retreat to the Bataan peninsula. A series of Japanese assaults forced the US defensive lines back and on 22nd February, 1942, MacArthur was ordered to leave Bataan and go to Australia. General Jonathan Wainright remained behind with 11,000 soldiers and managed to hold out until the beginning of May.
In December 1942 Willoughby was with General Robert Eichelberger in the capture of Buna Village in the Buna-Gona campaign. He was awarded the Army's second highest decoration for gallantry, the Distinguished Service Cross, for "extraordinary heroism in action".
Willoughby accompanied Douglas MacArthur to Tokyo for the occupation of Japan. When attempts to suppress news to the United States ended in failure, he labeled reporters who defied him, as "Communists".
A Cold War warrior he was a strong supporter of the activities of Joseph McCarthy. He also lobbied the US Congress to authorize $100 million for General Franco's government in Spain.
MacArthur once described the six-foot, three-inch, Willoughby as "my little Fascist".
In 1951 Willoughby went before the House of Un-American Activities and provided information about the Richard Sorge spy network. This included information that claimed that Agnes Smedley was a "communist subversive".
In retirement Willoughby was a member of the International Committee for the Defense of Christian Culture. During the 1p50s he worked closely with Billy James Hargis, Haroldson L. Hunt, John Rousselot and other right-wing figures. Willoughby was also a board member of Young Americans for Freedom, an organization created by Larrie Schmidt.
Two days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy a long-distance telephone operator in Mexico City monitored an international phone call. She heard one of the voices saying: "The Castro plan is being carried out. Bobby is next."
The telephone numbers were traced. One number belonged to Emilio Nunez Portuondo, the Latin American Affairs editor of Willoughby's Foreign Intelligence Digest.
In 1968 Willoughby moved with his wife to Naples, Florida. Charles Willoughby died on 25th October, 1972.
and the closest someone ever got to portraying him was Ed Begley in Billion Dollar Brain, back in the 1960s, as the Texan with the supercomputer and trying to start World War III.
........
Currington Interview
Greg Doudna: And General Edwin Walker was living in Dallas also?
(General Edwin Walker, 1909-1993, was a Dallas-based nationwide conservative cause célèbre after calling for resistance, which turned violent, to the U.S. government in Sept. 1962 in Oxford, Mississippi. President Kennedy had sent five hundred federal marshals to enforce court orders compelling the University of Mississippi to enroll fully-qualified African-American applicant James Meredith who was being refused admission because he was black. In a speech of Oct. 26, 1963, in Jackson, Mississippi, Walker said, “The best definition I can find for Communism is ‘Kennedy liberalism’ … [Kennedy is] the greatest leader of the anti-Christ movement.”)
John Curington: General Walker would be considered a friend of mine, and a friend of Mr. Hunt’s. He was a visitor from time to time to our offices. Each time he came in I would visit with him, Mr. Hunt would visit with him, and it was not uncommon for him to pick up Life Line materials that we had used in a broadcast, or Life Line materials that were available to us that had not been put into a radio transcript.
........
One of Hunt’s sons, Bunker Hunt, helped pay the cost of a black-bordered full-page newspaper ad accusing Kennedy of traitorous actions.
Its headline was: “Welcome Mr. Kennedy: Why Are You a Communist?” The black borders were like a funeral notice.
This ad appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Friday, November 22, 1963.
It was seeing that ad which prompted Kennedy to remark to Jacqueline at their hotel that morning, “We’re heading into nut country.”
........
One of Hunt's chief allies, Allen Zoll, said that since 1936 Hunt advocated deporting all African Americans to Africa. For this reason, Hunt supplied Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad continuous financial support due to the latter's belief in racial separation from whites.
Malcolm X Exposes Nation of Islam's Secret Relationship with KKK & H.L. Hunt
........
who was in his circle?
................
Dick Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1992)
A White House memorandum prepared for JFK in mid-August 1963 estimated that the radical right spent as much as $25 million annually, supported by about 70 foundations, 113 corporations, 25 utility companies, and 250 identifiable individuals.
In the thick of it all, and much more, was Charles Willoughby.
While his mentor, General MacArthur, passed into quiet retirement and was occasionally sought by Kennedy for advice, Willoughby approached his seventieth birthday with samurai swords placed strategically next to his desk.
Willoughby's holy war against the "Red Menace" found him sitting on the boards of most of the major conservative groups, and reaching into Europe and Latin America to start his own International Committee for the Defense of Christian Culture...
Willoughby's publisher and friend Billy James Hargis was a short, portly, double-chinned fellow in his midthirties who gained much of his financial support from H. L. Hunt and other wealthy oilmen.
Along with Willoughby, who was his Washington eyes and ears, another of Hargis's advisory committee members was retired lieutenant general Pedro del Valle, US Marine commander in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
After the Korean War, del Valle had become vice president of ITT's Latin American operations.
In September 1961 Hargis announced that a secret fraternity to coordinate right-wing activities would soon be formed.
Then, on March 21,1962, a carefully selected group was called together in Washington. ]
No press representatives were allowed at the founding session of the Anti-Communist Liaison, which brought together about one hundred delegates representing some seventy-five right-wing groups at the Washington Hotel.
Named as its chairman and operating head was Edward Hunter, a National Advisory Board member of Young Americans for Freedom.
The new group's insider was US representative John Rousselot, a John Birch Society spokesman and Christian Crusade board member from Los Angeles.
It also had a Southern California "outsider," Colonel William P. Gale, yet another ex-MacArthur man. In 1962, as California state chairman of the Constitution Party, Colonel Gale announced his candidacy for the governorship on a platform calling for the abolition of all income taxes. He also organized, soon after the pivotal springtime meeting in Washington, a paramilitary outfit.
................
Charles Willoughby
Adolf Tscheppe-Weidenbach, the son of Baron von Tscheppe-Weidenbach from Baden, Germany, and Emma Willoughby, was born in 1892. After attending the University of Heidelberg, Willoughby moved to the United States in 1910 and became known as Charles Willoughby.
Willoughby joined the United States Army and served with Company K, 5th U.S. Infantry, and eventually reached the rank of sergeant. He was commissioned a major in May 1914 in the Officers Volunteer Corps. During the First World War Willoughby served on the Western Front.
In October 1919 Captain Willoughby was reassigned to the 24th Infantry serving at Columbus, New Mexico.
His next assignment took him overseas to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where again he served as both company and battalion commander in the 65th Infantry from February 1921 to May 1923. He now joined the Military Intelligence Division, as served as Military Attaché duties in Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.
In August, 1929, Willoughby started a course at the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After graduating two years later, he stayed on at the school as an instructor, teaching the subjects of Intelligence and Military History. He also edited the Command and General Staff School Quarterly.
In 1936 he was appointed as an instructor in the Infantry School at Fort Benning. Later he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He developed extreme right-wing views and once delivered a speech to Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco at a lunch in Madrid.
He also praised Benito Mussolini: "Historical judgment, freed from the emotional haze of the moment, will credit Mussolini with wiping out a memory of defeat by re-establishing the traditional military supremacy of the white race."
Willoughby became logistics officer in the Headquarters of the Philippine Department in Manila where he served under General Douglas MacArthur.
Promoted to the rank of major general, Willoughby served as General MacArthur's Chief of Intelligence in the General Headquarters, Southwest Pacific Area (1941-1951).
The Japanese Air Force attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on the 7th December 1941. The following day they carried out air strikes on the Philippines and destroyed half of MacArthur's air force.
MacArthur was much criticized for this as he had been told to move his airforce after the raid on Hawaii the previous day.
The Japanese Army also invaded the Philippines and they soon held the three air bases in northern Luzon. On 22nd December the 14th Army landed at Lingayen Gulf and quickly gained control of Manila from the inexperienced Filipino troops. Although only 57,000 Japanese soldiers were landed on Luzon it had little difficulty capturing the island.
General Douglas MacArthur now ordered a general retreat to the Bataan peninsula. A series of Japanese assaults forced the US defensive lines back and on 22nd February, 1942, MacArthur was ordered to leave Bataan and go to Australia. General Jonathan Wainright remained behind with 11,000 soldiers and managed to hold out until the beginning of May.
In December 1942 Willoughby was with General Robert Eichelberger in the capture of Buna Village in the Buna-Gona campaign. He was awarded the Army's second highest decoration for gallantry, the Distinguished Service Cross, for "extraordinary heroism in action".
Willoughby accompanied Douglas MacArthur to Tokyo for the occupation of Japan. When attempts to suppress news to the United States ended in failure, he labeled reporters who defied him, as "Communists".
A Cold War warrior he was a strong supporter of the activities of Joseph McCarthy. He also lobbied the US Congress to authorize $100 million for General Franco's government in Spain.
MacArthur once described the six-foot, three-inch, Willoughby as "my little Fascist".
In 1951 Willoughby went before the House of Un-American Activities and provided information about the Richard Sorge spy network. This included information that claimed that Agnes Smedley was a "communist subversive".
In retirement Willoughby was a member of the International Committee for the Defense of Christian Culture. During the 1p50s he worked closely with Billy James Hargis, Haroldson L. Hunt, John Rousselot and other right-wing figures. Willoughby was also a board member of Young Americans for Freedom, an organization created by Larrie Schmidt.
Two days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy a long-distance telephone operator in Mexico City monitored an international phone call. She heard one of the voices saying: "The Castro plan is being carried out. Bobby is next."
The telephone numbers were traced. One number belonged to Emilio Nunez Portuondo, the Latin American Affairs editor of Willoughby's Foreign Intelligence Digest.
In 1968 Willoughby moved with his wife to Naples, Florida. Charles Willoughby died on 25th October, 1972.
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