JFK ASSASSINATION - POSSIBLE OVERLOOKED SOURCE - Hugh Murray

     Is it possible some info re the Kennedy assassination has lain dormant for over 70 years?  I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, and it was rather conservative politically in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.  One example: during one summer, a La. legislative committee devoted at least 3 hours of radio time to their history of the American Civil Liberties Union.  The conclusion of the legislative committee - the ACLU was founded in the era of WWI by communists and it remains a red organization today, pushing communist programs like race mixing.  As school was out, I got to hear the whole program.

     The American Legion was a popular organization, and its members dominated LUAC, the Louisiana Un-American Activities Committee.  The Legion also sponsored civic educational programs like Pelican Boys State.

     In May of 1955 I completed my 2nd year at Warren Easton Senior High (grades 10, 11, and 12) with only one more to go to graduate.  I was also invited to represent Easton at Boys State that summer, which would be held in Baton Rouge.  We were to create a new state government and on the last day, debate a proposed law, which all hoped might influence the real legislators to do the same.  Informally, word got round that the Legion thought it wise to have a law promoting Reserve Officer Training in all public schools.  If Boys State passed such a "law," perhaps the real legislators would follow and do the same.  I was 16 years old, and most of us were about the same age.

     I did not know another young man at this conclave; I think all of us were essentially alone.  We had no programs of our own.  We would stay in the LSU dorm rooms in the football stadium, and work on policy at the State Capitol building or other state offices. At one of our first meetings for business, we had elections for this and that, speaking for or against someone we barely knew.  I was elected to the BS La Senate.  The next order of business - what would we debate on the big night at the end of the week?.  Most assumed it would be ROTC.  I rose and suggested another topic - just one year ago the US Supreme Court had overturned 60 years of precedent, with racial segregation, to rule that racial segregation should now end "with all deliberate speed".  Why not debate that?  My question was quickly answered when another Senator rose and declared we should not debate that, as I was the only one who favored it.  Then, I, and I'm sure many others, were similarly shocked when other senators rose to support my resolution.  I had not spoken with anyone prior, had not lobbied, yet there was support for this debate topic.  We decided to debate integration in summer 1953 in the Louisiana Senate.  I suspect that the American Legionnaires were not pleased.

    For the last night of that week, we all marched through the streets of Baton Rouge from LSU to the state capital, built under one of Huey Long's administrations.  In the real statte Senate we debated integration.  I wondered how the vote would go.  If we won, this would not be just local news, but international news.  I assume Legionnaires were wondering too.  At a certain point, a Legionnaire took the roster to announce that the Senate Chamber had to be evacuated immediately; there was no time for a vote on the debated measure!

     Skip to October  3, 1963.  I was teaching 5th grade to a small wonderful class at a new school.  After work that day I had arranged a game of tennis with a friend, so I did not get home till somewhat later.  My mother greeted me, "Hrmph, I thought they had rounded you up too."  My mom was not as sharp as she had been, but I wondered what she was talking about, and rushed to turn on tv news.  LUAC with the help of the new DA, Jim Garrison, had arrested the leader of the Southern Conference Education Fund (a pro-integration small organization, and I subscribed to its newsletter) and civil liberties attorney Ben Smith.  A good friend of mine from Tulane U. Jack Peebles, had joined Smith's law firm.  The media was happy with the raids on the subversives.  And though Garrison, the only elected official to try to expose the BS of the Warren Commission on JFK, his early actions as DA were not liberal.

     My question, where was LUAC during the summer of 1963?  That summer on WDSU radio Lee Oswald had an hour to discuss his politics.  Not a communist, but a Marxist he said, and more for an hour.  Oswald handed out Fair Play for Cuba leaflets, and even had a fight with an anti-Castro refugee from Cuba, for which Oswald was arrested.  Of course, the strange thing: Oswald was working on that project with staunch anti-communist Guy Banister, former leader of the FBI in Chicago, former Acting Superintendent of the NO Police, then his own detective agency, where the pro-Castro leaflets used by Oswald were stored, etc.  Why didn't the LUAC (Am Legion leaders) go after Oswald, instead of Ben Smith, SCEF, or possibly me!

     I suspect Banister must have told the Legion leaders of LUAC, NOT to go after Oswald.  Perhaps, he said more like, he's one of ours, or he works for one of the American agencies.  Could something like this still be in the dusty files of LUAC??

If Oswald were one of ours, was his defection to the USSR a fake one?  And was he being set up to be a PATSY?

HUGH MURRAY

For many in the South, race-mixing, integration was communism.  The American Legion conducted Bayou Boys State for black high school boys and in accord with Louisiana's segregation laws.

The LUAC raid in New Orleans occurred October 3, 1963.  November 2, 1963, South Vietnam's President Diem was killed and his regime in Saigon overthrown in a coup approved by America's CIA.  On November 22, 1963, another President was killed and his leadership overthrown in a coup.

I have no idea about the views of the American Legion nationally, but in NOLA, they tended to be conservative.  They were unhappy with Pres. Eisenhower when he supported statehood for Hawaii and Alaska.  Clearly they were not white enough to join the union.  Even after admission to statehood, the Legion's social group retained the name "40 and 8".  Like many others of that era, the Legion seemed to view integration as subversion. 

REMEMBER WORKING AT THE OLD WORLD TRADE CENTER -- HUGH MURRAY

  Re 9/11  2001

     I returned to NYC in the late 1970s from teaching for a year in Europe.  Had to find a place to stay and a job.  Luckily I quickly found a post with the state government, Workers Compensation agency, located on a number of floors of #2 World Trade Center.  The 2 huge sky scrapers were the tallest in the world for a time, so impressive, that Hollywood made a new King Kong film to show the world the new structures, that were higher than the Empire State Building which still stood further north on Manhattan.  the WTC was right by the southern tip of Manhattan, and the treat of where I worked, in winter the sun would set in the background while we could gaze down on the Statue of Liberty on the small island to the south.

     Perhaps around 1982 the Workers Comp agency, of about 5 floors, had a fired drill on the 35? floor.  I worked on the 38th.  We all gathered round the expert who spoke to us by the elevators.  I recall little of his discussion of what to do in case of fire, - except one very important point.  The elevators for the new buildings included an easier method to call the elevators.  Instead of pushing buttons, just the heat of your finger was sufficient to call the elevator to your floor.  Then the catch - the instructor informed us, in case of fire Never use the elevator as the heat of the fire would bring you to the floor with the fire.  A shocker.  Not too bad as we were on the floors of the 30s; what do you do if you work on the 110th floor?  I did not ask; but was happy I worked on the 38th.

     This is a problem we can assume the authorities knew of, and must have fixed before other problems drove in or flew in.

      All humans are much alike, and yet, we are all different.  I admit, I am somewhat off the beaten track.  It was the early 1980s, and sometimes, rather than take the subway to work, I would walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and the sun and clouds would engulf the 2 twin towers sometimes, sometimes making the appear almost purple.  Other days I took the tube for a short, hot, sweaty, smelly ride across the East River to the WTC stop.  One day got out the subway, went to the lower floor of the WTC to get a "local" elevator (for higher floors, there were other banks for those express lifts to the higher floors, fast.  This day, none of the elvators were working, and the area was packed with all the people wanting to get to their jobs up stairs;    I looked.  How long would it take for all the people waiting ahead of me before I could get near an elevator.  On occasion, I had walked down the 38 flights, so I knew where the stairs were.  Should I walk up?  I might be really late for work if the elevators begin to work.  Or stay?  I chose to walk up.  All was usual, until I reached the 9th floor; I looked up and there seemed to be no lights above me.  I kept walking up.  By the 11th floor, I put my hand in front of my face, and could not see it.

      On ground level there were many eateries for tourists and workers, but many who worked in the WTC chose to save money by bringing their own sandwiches and soda and ate on the stairs, which were no wider than average stairways.  Often paper plates and soda bottles were left on the stairs.  Now in total darkness, I had to use my foot and try to make sure each step up was safe.  To fall in this darkness could be catastrophic.  Meanwhile, I could still hear the swaying of the tower with the wind, a sound not heard on the floors, but in the stair wells, you knew it was not a ship but the tower build to sway.

     

When I reached the 38th floor, I had not trouble opening the door.  When I appeared, the early bird group, who had arrived prior to the elevator problem, was working normally.  Phones, everything was going smoothly.  The elevators were still not running, and I was the only one from the 9am group to arrive.  But I was shocked - how can the elevators be out, and there areno lights in the stairs?  To me this was dangerous.

     Workers Comp was about to move to a different location, one I wanted to avoid, so I planned to leave the job.  I spoke to our union rep about contacting OCEA  and hoped both of us would write them about this problem.  I left in 1983.

     A decade later, I was watching the nightly news and the big story was about an attempt to blow up the World Trade Center.  Apparently, explosives were in a truck in a parking garage below the buildings.  I was shocked to learn that the lights on the stairways were out (at least in some places), slowing evacuation.  As a result of the terror attack from below, there were many injured, as some deaths, and the need for costly repairs to the buildings.

      From Milwaukee I wrote a letter about the problems on the stairs, and sent it to 4 large newspapers, the NY Times, the NY Post, the NY Daily News, and Long Island Newsday.  3 of those papers printed my letter, all except the Times.  Still, with circulation into the millions, one can assume many read my letter, and would have demanded improvement on the stairs.

     I was still in Milwaukee when 9/11 occurred.  Truly shocking.  Afterward, a friend of mine of that era, Clark Rowley, wrote me:

Dear Hugh:  Read an article about the evacuation of the wtc.  Following quotes: "After the bombing, however, batteries were added to every other light fixture in stairwells in case power went out.  Handrails were painted with glow-in-the-dark paint, which also was used to mark a continuous stripe down the middle of the staircases. A public address system was added."  An earlier paragraph said: "In 1993, it took six hours to evacuate most of the Trade Center after terrorists detonated a bomb in an underground garage, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000.  This time, despite missteps, evacuation was cut by several hours.:  Your old letter helped urge them on."

    I do not maintain that my letter was the only impetus that pushed change in the stairs, and saved lived on 9/11, but I do think it helped.   Hugh Murray

    My letter to the NY Post was published Mon. 8 March 1993, p. 16.  The NY Daily News and Newsday published it on the same day or around that date.