Joseph Milteer, FBI Corruption, and Foreknowledge of the JFK Shooting

[Michael T. Griffith]

Having now tightened the propellor on my sanity beanie, it occurs to me that if I had inside knowledge of an impending assassination of the POTUS, I (1) would probably not be standing on the sidewalk in full view when it happened, and (2) would probably not confide in casual "friends" like Willie Augustus Somersett, who was known to be gabby and indiscreet. https://www.wlrn.org/politics/2013-11-14/a-miami-police-informant-a-prophetic-racist-and-fresh-questions-about-jfks-death. But maybe that's just me.

IOW, although you guys always say "if there had been a plot, someone would have talked," you guys will find any excuse, no matter how lame and strained, to discredit anyone who disclosed knowledge of the plot, even if their disclosure was caught on tape without their knowledge, and you will find any excuse to reject the disclosure itself.

Naturally, you went searching for any sources that question Somersett's credibility. Somersett was considered a reliable and trustworthy informant before he agreed to cooperate with Garrison's investigation. Until then, there was not one smirch on his record as an informant. No one claimed he was "gabby and indiscreet," much less unreliable, until after he cooperated with Garrison. I suggest you read the section in Adams' book on the smear campaign that was waged against Somersett.

Let's keep in mind that Somersett did not make the Milteer tape. No one claims that Somersett fabricated the tape or staged his conversations with Milteer. The Milteer tape shows that Milteer said a plot to kill JFK was already underway, that JFK would be killed with a rifle from a building, and that the police would pick up someone quickly to throw off the public. And Milteer was certainly ran in the right circles to be aware of the plot.

Again, Milteer only disclosed his knowledge of the plot to his childhood friend William Somersett and had no idea Somersett was an informant or that their conversations were being recorded. He had every rational reason to think it was safe to be in Dealey Plaza to watch the assassination that he knew would take place.

And I notice you again declined to address the photographic evidence that Milteer was in Dealey Plaza during the shooting. As much as you say you don't think Milteer would have risked being there, you have yet to explain the photographic evidence that was in fact there.

From McAdams' site, here is a more balanced take on Milteer: https://www.jfk-assassination.net/milteer.htm.

"More balanced take"? No, a more biased and incomplete take. McAdams ignored any evidence that supports Somersett's credibility and that shows that Milteer was in a position to know about such a plot. Compare McAdams' article with Adams' book From an Office Building with a High-Powered Rifle and with the following articles:

“The Georgian Who Knew a Sniper Would Kill JFK”
https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1182&context=fac_pm

“Additional Milteer Information”
https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1107&context=fac_pm

“Was Milteer in Dallas?”
https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1148&context=fac_pm

“Predictions of Joseph Milteer”
https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/Predictions_of_Joseph_Milteer.html

Hasty Judgment: Why The JFK Case Is Not Closed: A Reply to Gerald Posner's
Book Case Closed (chapter 20: The Case of Joseph Milteer, pp. 103-107)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JuHmh8_AXyoKFyCt0RPXEUoHDPy-qakz/view

BTW, it's Somersett, not Sommersett.

Yes, you are correct.

[Michael T. Griffith]

The negative replies in this thread provide a prime example of the strained, unserious way that lone-gunman theorists treat hard evidence of conspiracy. Here we have an actual police surveillance recording of a wealthy, well-connected right-wing extremist saying, less than two weeks before the assassination, that a plot to kill Kennedy was underway, that the hit would involve a rifle fired from a building, that the rifle could be disassembled to get it into the building, and that a patsy would be picked up by the police within hours of the shooting to mislead the public.

We also have confirmation from the FBI agent who tracked and interviewed Milteer after the assassination, Don Adams, that the Altgens photo does indeed show Milteer in Dealey Plaza during the shooting. Even the HSCA photographic experts, who were determined to deny that Milteer appears in the Altgens photo, admitted that the man in the photo “bears a strong resemblance to Joseph Adams Milteer,” that the man resembles Milteer "in age and general facial configuration," and that the man is even wearing eyeglasses similar to those worn by Milteer. Yeah, that's because the man is Milteer, as Adams confirmed.

The FBI later concocted an alibi for Milteer for 11/22, but Adams exposes the alibi as fraudulent, adding, "I am sure Milteer was not in Valdosta, nor was he in Quitman, Georgia, until five days after the assassination."

Moreover, a Secret Service report (CE 762) documents that the Secret Service received information from an FBI source that reinforced Milteer's taped prediction and that supported the Miami police informant's account. The report dealt with information that the Secret Service received from the FBI just seven days before the assassination. According to the report, an unnamed contact in the Ku Klux Klan said that during his travels around the country his sources had told him "that a militant group of the National States Rights Party plans to assassinate the President." The National States Rights Party had close links with anti-Castro Cubans, and Milteer was a leader in the party.

It is worth noting that the FBI submitted a lengthy report to the WC about Milteer but the Commission ignored it. The WC did not even publish the FBI report in its volumes. Part of the FBI report surfaced in 1971. The full report was not available until 1976.

Incredibly, the FBI report did not mention the Milteer tape, and the Secret Service did not tell the WC about the tape either. This does not excuse the WC's failure to investigate Milteer, but knowledge of the tape's existence might have made a difference. I suspect the FBI and the Secret Service feared that if they revealed the existence of the Milteer tape, at least some of the WC's members would insist on a thorough investigation into Milteer's connections and his whereabouts on the day of the shooting.

[Tom Graves]

The negative replies in this thread provide a prime example of the strained, unserious way that lone-gunman theorists treat hard evidence of conspiracy. Here we have an actual police surveillance recording of a wealthy, well-connected right-wing extremist saying, less than two weeks before the assassination, that a plot to kill Kennedy was underway, that the hit would involve a rifle fired from a building, that the rifle could be disassembled to get it into the building, and that a patsy would be picked up by the police within hours of the shooting to mislead the public.

We also have confirmation from the FBI agent who tracked and interviewed Milteer after the assassination, Don Adams, that the Altgens photo does indeed show Milteer in Dealey Plaza during the shooting. Even the HSCA photographic experts, who were determined to deny that Milteer appears in the Altgens photo, admitted that the man in the photo “bears a strong resemblance to Joseph Adams Milteer,” that the man resembles Milteer "in age and general facial configuration," and that the man is even wearing eyeglasses similar to those worn by Milteer. Yeah, that's because the man is Milteer, as Adams confirmed.

The FBI later concocted an alibi for Milteer for 11/22, but Adams exposes the alibi as fraudulent, adding, "I am sure Milteer was not in Valdosta, nor was he in Quitman, Georgia, until five days after the assassination."

Moreover, a Secret Service report (CE 762) documents that the Secret Service received information from an FBI source that reinforced Milteer's taped prediction and that supported the Miami police informant's account. The report dealt with information that the Secret Service received from the FBI just seven days before the assassination. According to the report, an unnamed contact in the Ku Klux Klan said that during his travels around the country his sources had told him "that a militant group of the National States Rights Party plans to assassinate the President." The National States Rights Party had close links with anti-Castro Cubans, and Milteer was a leader in the party.

It is worth noting that the FBI submitted a lengthy report to the WC about Milteer but the Commission ignored it. The WC did not even publish the FBI report in its volumes. Part of the FBI report surfaced in 1971. The full report was not available until 1976.

Incredibly, the FBI report did not mention the Milteer tape, and the Secret Service did not tell the WC about the tape either. This does not excuse the WC's failure to investigate Milteer, but knowledge of the tape's existence might have made a difference. I suspect the FBI and the Secret Service feared that if they revealed the existence of the Milteer tape, at least some of the WC's members would insist on a thorough investigation into Milteer's connections and his whereabouts on the day of the shooting.

Dear Comrade Griffith,

Please, please, please answer my question:

Does "former" KGB officer Vladimir Putin pay you, or do you do it for free?

-- Tom

[Michael T. Griffith]

Dear Comrade Griffith,

Please, please, please answer my question: Does "former" KGB officer Vladimir Putin pay you, or do you do it for free?-- Tom

How ironic that you would post such a silly, juvenile reply in response to my point that WC apologists treat hard evidence of conspiracy in an unserious, strained fashion. I guess I should thank you for proving my point.

Do you have any idea how ridiculous you look in constantly accusing those who disagree with you of being knowing tools of Vladimir Putin? Do you have any idea how immature and odd that makes you look?

Then again, you are the one who has stated several times in this forum that the West lost the Cold War and that Russia won it. That is akin to saying that George McGovern won the 1972 election. One could infer that your grip on reality is open to question.

[Tom Graves]

Do you have any idea how ridiculous you look in constantly accusing those who disagree with you of being knowing tools of Vladimir Putin?

Dear Comrade Griffith,

Where did I say that tinfoil-hat JFKA conspiracy theorists like you are necessarily "knowing tools" of "former" KGB counterintelligence officer Vladimir Putin?

Don't you know the definition of "useful idiot"?

Maybe you should look it up.

It's an old KGB expression.

Or . . . gasp . . . are you actually a knowing tool of his?

If so, please fess up!


Bottom line: Whether you realize it or not, you and Jim DiEugenio, et al. ad nauseam, are doing a bang-up job of fulfilling the 1959 21st Party Congress' goal of getting us to tear ourselves apart.


-- Tom

[Michael T. Griffith]

Dear Comrade Griffith, Where did I say that tinfoil-hat JFKA conspiracy theorists like you are necessarily "knowing tools" of "former" KGB counterintelligence officer Vladimir Putin? Don't you know the definition of "useful idiot"? Maybe you should look it up. It's an old KGB expression. Or . . . gasp . . . are you actually a knowing tool of his? If so, please fess up!

Your arguments sound like they come from a teenager and suggest a lack of knowledge of basic logic and English. When you ask if WC critics are being paid by Putin or if they're doing it for free, you are clearly arguing that they know they are doing Putin's bidding, whether for pay or for free.

Bottom line: Whether you realize it or not, you and Jim DiEugenio, et al. ad nauseam, are doing a bang-up job of fulfilling the 1959 21st Party Congress' goal of getting us to tear ourselves apart. -- Tom

Oh my goodness. This is just so bizarre and ridiculous. So anyone who disagrees with you on the JFK case is fulfilling the 1959 Soviet goal of getting us to tear ourselves apart? Uh-huh. Well, thanks for sharing.

Did it "tear ourselves apart" when the Iran-Contra conspiracy was exposed, a conspiracy that occurred on three continents, involved hundreds of participants (most of whom had no idea they were aiding a conspiracy), and reached up to the highest levels of our government? How about when Watergate was exposed? How about when the CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro were exposed? Did exposing these conspiracies "tear ourselves apart"? Do you wish they had never been exposed?

Honestly, in your case these are rhetorical questions. I can only imagine the zany answer you will offer. I pose the questions mainly for the sake of others.

[Lance Payette]

All the Milteer stuff is nicely gathered here: https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/Predictions_of_Joseph_Milteer.html.

No one denies that Milteer's statements to Somersett were startling, especially the part about picking up a patsy within hours. So were some of JFK's own statements about the possibility of being assassinated. So is the bogus factoid of "Lee H. Oswald's" signature at the Museum of Atomic Energy. The article from McAdams' site that I linked puts some context on Milteer's statements that make them seem somewhat less startling - but they were indeed startling, no doubt about it.

I simply raised two commonsense questions: (1) If someone actually had foreknowledge about an impending assassination of the POTUS, would he be likely to speak freely about it to a character like Somersett, and (2) would he be standing in full view at the scene of the crime? You are free to answer yes, but I tend to think probably not.

Let's apply some additional common sense:

Milteer was a high-profile, right-wing racist. He was a member of the notoriously violent Dixie faction of the KKK. He was active and prominent in the right-wing, racist Congress of Freedom, National States Rights Party and Constitution Party. As a member of the latter's board of directors, he had helped formulate plans "to put an end to the Kennedy, King, Khrushchev dictatorship over our nation.” Somersett described him as "the most violent man I know."

1. If you were planning an assassination of JFK, does Milteer sound like the sort of character you would bring into the loop and trust with your plans? Your kitchen-sink conspiracy theory at the Ed Forum has LBJ, the Secret Service, the Mafia, rogue elements of the CIA, and rogue elements of the military as participants - do you seriously think they'd bring Milteer into the loop?

2. If you think Milteer was actually front-and-center in the assassination planning, doesn't this pretty well lock you into a conspiracy theory quite different from LBJ, the Secret Service, the Mafia, rogue elements of the CIA, and rogue elements of the military?

What I notice about CTers is they never seem to care if their conspiracy nuggets hang together or make any coherent sense. Milteer is just "proof of a conspiracy" in some generic, free-floating way. Try to fit him plausibly into an actual conspiracy theory and you hit a brick wall.

Because there actually were rumors of an attempt on JFK in Miami, my guess is that Milteer may have been plugged into those but that this simply had nothing to do with the JFKA. I always have in the back of my mind Gerry Patrick Hemming's statement, "I know for a fact plans to kill JFK were in the works. Maybe Oswald just beat 'em to it." (A paraphrase - he said something pretty close to that.)