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

[Michael T. Griffith]

On November 9, 1963, a wealthy, well-connected right-wing extremist named Joseph Milteer told William Somersett, whom he did not know was a Miami police informant, that a plot to kill JFK was already "in the works" (or "in the working"). Milteer said the best way to kill Kennedy would be "from an office building with a high-powered rifle." Milteer also said the authorities would pick up someone within hours after the shooting "just to throw the public off." Somersett captured Milteer's comments on tape. The Milteer tape is available online and is included in several documentaries on the assassination.

After the assassination, Somersett had another meeting with Milteer, in which Milteer boasted,

Everything ran true to form. I guess you thought I was kidding when I said he would be killed from a window with a high-powered rifle. . . . I don't do any guessing.

Milteer said not to worry about the capture of Oswald, "because he doesn't know anything."

In 2012, historic new information about the case of Joseph Milteer came to light. The information confirmed that the FBI conducted a corrupt investigation into JFK’s death. The information came from Don Adams, a retired FBI agent and career law enforcement officer, who personally investigated, questioned, and knew Joseph Milteer in 1963. Adams was the FBI agent who interviewed Milteer five days after the assassination. Adams disclosed the information in his 2012 book From an Office Building with a High-Powered Rifle: A Report to the Public from an FBI Agent Involved in the Official JFK Assassination Investigation (Trine Day LLC, Kindle Edition).

Among other things, Adams revealed that the reason he did not ask Milteer about his recorded comments regarding a plot to kill JFK and about his whereabouts on the day of the shooting was that his FBI superior, SAIC James McMahon, prohibited him from doing so. In fact, McMahon did not even tell Adams about Milteer’s recorded comments about a plot. Said Adams,

He [McMahon] added that the Agent in Charge of the Secret Service requested that I locate Milteer immediately, interview and then hold him for the Secret Service.

At this point, McMahon got very specific with me about my interview with Milteer. He cautioned me that the interview had to be done carefully and that he was going to instruct me as to the questions I should ask. He added that I was to ask nothing more. . . .

This struck me as strange at the time, and it never happened again during my entire career with the Bureau. I voiced my concern one more time, and McMahon angrily insisted that I was to obtain descriptive data on Milteer and then ask only the five questions he had dictated, “You will do as I say and do nothing more.” Period. End of discussion.

I was still troubled by his orders, but I knew my boundaries. . . .

The Miami police and the FBI knew of this tape-recording before I was assigned to locate and interview Milteer, yet I had been told nothing about it! Something was drastically wrong. The Bureau that I had been part of and respected just did not work this way.

I did not know of the Nov. 9, 1963, tape recording until 1993. . . . Here I am, the case agent of the investigation involving Milteer, and I am never informed by anyone in the FBI about the tape recording or the direct threat. Obviously, this information was purposefully kept from me in total violation of the strictest Bureau rules. (Locs. 310-317, 944, 1345)

One of the most important parts of Adams’ book is his segment on the photographic evidence that Milteer was in Dealey Plaza as a spectator during the shooting. Adams recognized Milteer as the same man in the Altgens photo whom many other researchers have identified as Milteer. Dr. Don Wilkes discusses this evidence and the HSCA PEP’s flawed rejection of the Milteer identification in his article “The Georgian Who Knew a Sniper Would Kill JFK” (see link below).

BTW, the HSCA PEP acknowledged that the man in question in the Altgens photo “bears a strong resemblance to Joseph Adams Milteer,” that the man resembled Milteer "in age and general facial configuration," and that the man was wearing eyeglasses similar to those worn by Milteer. The PEP used a flawed facial and height analysis as their basis for concluding the man is not Milteer. Dr. Wilkes discussed some of the problems with the PEP’s analysis:

In deciding that Milteer stood 5’ 4”, the panel relied, as stated previously, on an FBI report dated Dec. 1, 1963, and now in the National Archives. That lengthy document, however, as Adams patiently explains, is not reliable; it includes a fraudulent report and information that has been altered and was not prepared by Adams, the only FBI agent who actually interviewed Milteer on Nov. 27. . . . Milteer actually was not as short as the panel believed. “I know,” Don Adams tells us, “he was taller than 5’ 4”.”  Adams himself prepared descriptive data reports which stated that Milteer was 5’ 8,” and Secret Service reports listed Milteer as either 5’ 7” or 5’ 8”. (https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1182&context=fac_pm)

A little more on Milteer: He was a man of considerable wealth, and belonged to a number of radical and racist groups. He was a regional director of the fanatical Constitution Party. In addition, he held membership in the White Citizens' Council of Atlanta and was a leader in the National States Rights Party, which had close links with the anti-Castro movement. He traveled all over the country to promote the Constitution Party and the National States Rights Party.

The HSCA noted that the Miami Police Department informed the Secret Service about Milteer’s threat and advised that Milteer associated with right-wing extremists who were suspected of having committed violent acts, including the infamous Birmingham bombing in which four young black girls were killed:

During the meeting at which the Miami Police Department provided this transcript to the Secret Service, it also advised the Secret Service that Milteer had been involved with persons who professed a dislike for President Kennedy and were suspected of having committed violent acts, including the bombing of a Birmingham, Ala. church in which four young girls had been killed. They also reported that Milteer was connected with several radical rightwing organizations and traveled extensively throughout the United States in support of their views. . . . (HSCA report, pp. 232-233)

True to form, lone-gunman theorists, who frequently say “if there had been a plot, someone would have talked,” claim Milteer was crazy and that Sommersett was unreliable. They dismiss Milteer's statements as demented, over-heated speculation. They note that Milteer believed Kennedy had look-alikes for security purposes, which is hardly a wild or discrediting idea given that various world leaders used look-alikes for security reasons, including Joseph Stalin, Queen Elizabeth II, Fidel Castro, and Sukarno (https://www.businessinsider.com/global-figures-political-decoys-body-doubles-2023-10).

WC apologists also point to a few discrepancies between Somersett's initial debriefing with the Miami Police Department's Intelligence Unit and his later statement to the FBI, ignoring the many documented cases where FBI agents misrepresented what witnesses told them and/or pressured witnesses to change their story.

Lone-gunman theorists also note that an FBI official and a Secret Service official said Somersett was unreliable. They fail to mention that the FBI sought to discredit any informant who had information that pointed to conspiracy in the assassination, even if the informant had a good record for reliability. The Secret Service official whom Warren Commission apologists cite did not attack Somersett until 1967, when Somersett was cooperating with Jim Garrison's investigation. Other law enforcement officials who dealt with Somersett believed he was reliable.

And, some lone-gunman theorists claim Milteer specified that Jack Brown would kill Kennedy and/or that the assassination would happen in Washington, D.C. The Milteer tape proves both claims to be incorrect. Milteer only suggested Brown could kill Kennedy--he didn't say Brown would positively be the man to do it. Nor did Milteer say the shooting would occur in D.C. Somersett discussed this issue in his 11/26/63 interview with the Miami Police Department's Intelligence Unit:

The impression I get from him [Milteer], I think the thing was set up to kill Mr. Kennedy in the South, in some southern state. There was no particular town picked out, it was just the opportunity of the town that would suit best when the proper time comes. I think that when this man Mr. Kennedy left Miami, it was published in the papers, where he would go, and I think that they just set this man up in Texas and had him kill him right there. Because Milteer is too much enthused over it, he discussed it too much beforehand and after not to know something about it.

Furthermore, it should be noted that 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 Somersett'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 and other high-level officials" (see also Dick Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much, New York: Carroll & Graf/Richard Gallen, 1992, pp. 550-551).

As mentioned, Milteer was a leader in the National States Rights Party and was involved with other radical groups. He was certainly in a position to hear about a plot by radical right-wing militants to kill Kennedy, especially given that the National States Rights Party had ties to anti-Castro Cubans.

Sources for further reading:

“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

[Michael T. Griffith]

Moved to my thread on Oswald and the DPD's record of planting evidence.

[Tom Graves]

Moved to my thread on Oswald and the DPD's record of planting evidence.

Dear Comrade Griffith,

Thank God.

The fewer your "active measures" threads, the better.

-- Tom

[Lance Payette]

Just putting on my sanity beanie for a moment, it occurs to me that if I had spoken about JFK being whacked and did in fact have inside knowledge of the hit, I probably would not have been standing on a sidewalk in full view of photographers at the scene of the crime on November 22, 1963. But maybe that's just me. Most of the Three Stooges' humor went right over my head, I'll have to admit, and perhaps Milteer did view himself as the Moe of the plot. Could he - just thinking out loud here - possibly have been Prayer Man, too?

[Michael T. Griffith]

Just putting on my sanity beanie for a moment, it occurs to me that if I had spoken about JFK being whacked and did in fact have inside knowledge of the hit, I probably would not have been standing on a sidewalk in full view of photographers at the scene of the crime on November 22, 1963. But maybe that's just me. Most of the Three Stooges' humor went right over my head, I'll have to admit, and perhaps Milteer did view himself as the Moe of the plot. Could he - just thinking out loud here - possibly have been Prayer Man, too?

Your sanity beanie needs a sanity check. Let's start with two key facts that you've ignored:

One, Milteer only revealed his knowledge of the JFK plot to his long-time friend William Somersett.

Two, Milteer had no idea that Somersett was a Miami police informant and that their conversations were being recorded.

So Milteer had every reason to think that it was completely safe for him to be in Dealey Plaza to watch the assassination. He had no reason to think he had anything to worry about if he were photographed or filmed by bystanders. 

Furthermore, what about the man in the Altgens photo who so strikingly resembles Milteer? He's a dead ringer for Milteer. What about Adams' identification of the man as Milteer? Adams What about the fact that even the HSCA's photographic experts admitted that the man in the Altgens 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 wearing eyeglasses similar to those worn by Milteer?

Adams surveilled Milteer before he interviewed him, even standing next to him to get a good look at him. Then, after Adams and another agent apprehended Milteer to take him in for questioning, Adams spent over an hour with Milteer in the back seat of a Georgia state patrol car on the way to the FBI office in Valdosta. He spent nearly an hour interviewing Milteer to get as much info as he could within the narrow limits that his supervisor had established for the interview.

Adams positively identified Milteer as the man in the Altgens photo.

[Jarrett Smith]

Your sanity beanie needs a sanity check. Let's start with two key facts that you've ignored:

One, Milteer only revealed his knowledge of the JFK plot to his long-time friend William Sommersett.

Two, Milteer had no idea that Sommersett was a Miami police informant and that their conversations were being recorded.

So Milteer had every reason to think that it was completely safe for him to be in Dealey Plaza to watch the assassination. He had no reason to think he had anything to worry about if he were photographed or filmed by bystanders. 

Furthermore, about the man in the Altgens photo who so strikingly resembles Milteer? He's a dead ringer for Milteer. What about Adams' identification of the man as Milteer? Adams What about the fact that even the HSCA's photographic experts admitted that the man in the Altgens 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 wearing eyeglasses similar to those worn by Milteer?

Adams surveilled Milteer before he interviewed him, even standing next to him to get a good look at him. Then, after Adams and another agent apprehended Milteer to take him in for questioning, Adams spent over an hour with Milteer in the back seat of a Georgia state patrol car on the way to the FBI office in Valdosta. He spent nearly an hour interviewing Milteer to get as much info as he could within the narrow limits that his supervisor had established for the interview.

Adams positively identified Milteer as the man in the Altgens photo.

Milteer also had a hand in the killing of MLK paying Carlos Marcello to have the hit done.

[Lance Payette]

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.

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

BTW, it's Somersett, not Sommersett. No big deal.

[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.