The Diceman Cometh

Ed Ledoux
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Posts: 1106

All respects toThe Dice Man Andrew Clay,

I was going over the Diceman Avenue claims of McGown.

First the Diceman Ave name was only one possible names given as to the address thought to be Lee Oswalds.

1106 Diceman Avenue

In late March architect Daniel Thomas McGown flew from his hometown of

Memphis to Austin, Texas to review plans for a new building at the University of Texas.

Following his review McGown rented a car and drove to Fort Worth on Friday, March

29 and had dinner with his cousin, attorney George Q. McGown.

After dinner Daniel telephoned his wife in Memphis and wished her happy (Should be an easy day to remember due to this Bday)

birthday. He then drove to Dallas and rented a room at the Adolphus Hotel so that he

could be closer to Love Field for his flight home the next day. Shortly before midnight

McGown walked across the street to the Carousel Club. As he walked up the stairs to

the second floor he was told by a stocky, heavy-set man the club was closing for the

eventng.

The next morning (March 30) McGown returned to the entrance of the Carrousel

Club to look at photographs of the strip-tease dancers when a man crowded in between

him and the display cases. McGown said,

"As I was standing there looking at the display case a man crowded in between

me and the display case-apparently to see what I was looking at. As he moved

on around to leave, he accidentlly knocked all of the mail out of the mailbox that (Should be easy to show pictures of the mailbox)

was on the door. The mail that was scattered over the floor of the entry was a

couple of magazines, a few large pieces of mail and three letters of the same size

envelopes all addressed to the same person: 'Jake Rubenstein.' All of the senders

appeared to be girls names-two of the letters return addresses were in Fort

Worth but the other was from a Dallas address. The Dallas letter interested me

or rather caught my attention because the name read 'Lee Oswald' and I had a

friend in Memphis with the same last name (McGown's friend from Memphis

was a former member of the Board of Education named Felix Oswalt). The (Was the name on the letter also Oswalt?)

thought occurred to me that these letters were applicants for performers in the

Carrousel and that Jake Rubenstein was the manager who turned me away the

night before. I made a mental note of the street address which was Diceman

Street. I do not remember the number. I do not believe that at that moment I (Only made a mental note and did not do same for #)

definitely planned to go to that address but I wanted to sight see some of Dallas

as my flight time was mid-afternoon. After driving about for sometime and

studying the city map (a 1962 map which he kept) I found I was very close to (Where was he that he was close to "diceman" not much of anything is near that address)
Diceman Street. I thought I might drop by and see if Lee Oswald was related

to my friend and also see if she was an applicant for a performing strip-tease

artist. I found the address which was a typical newly constructed apartment, (The 1106 Diceman Apt was built in ''61 and was the only apt bldg around so it would stand out and could appear new in '63)

having entrances along one side with a balcony walk for the second floor. The

mail box directory was close to the street and when I found the Oswald box I

discovered the name 'Harvey' was included-so, I had misinterpreted the name

on the letter as being female-I left immediately and did not attempt to make a

call." 12



DiceLAND was a possible iteration that was given. Could the street have been a 'land' street name?
Being he was going from memory perhaps but no such street name existed.
The FBI checked and said only Diceman Avenue would have such an address.
Gemberling checked and only Diceman Avenue had an apartment building.

My thoughts,
First, since this was from memory it could very well be he was off as to the street he recalls.
If he was sure he would not have had to guess as to the exact name.
Second, all the letter type envelopes were the same size. Yes letter sized.
All addressed to Jake Rubinstein, as though they were answering an advertisement placed in an newspaper with contact Jake Rubenstein yada yada Dallas Tx. by 3x5 envelope. please enclose cash or money order.
Third, he recalls the two other 'letters' had Ft Worth addresses. LHO had an address in Ft Worth. Lee had family in Ft Worth, March '63?
Fourth, all appeared to be girls names, well one was not Lee was a male he found out after going to the address and seeing the mailbox had Lee Harvey Oswald on it. So could not the other two names have been male? Sure not Bob or Robert?
Fifth, he recalls TWO apartments as one was in relation to the other. What was the office on Birdsong in? An office building? a shack?
Sixth, only old friends from the 20th ward in Chicago called Jack by his real name Jake, let alone write mail to him. Unless it was an ad for employment and seen in dallas and ft worth.
Seventh, why the run around? The FBI had the original map a Doyle, of Dallas used by McGown to find Diceman in the first place.
Should have been easy to ask McGown where on the map he went.
Eighth, 1106 Diceman is near Keist and Bonnie View, actually between them
Nine Diceman drive is no where near Diceman Avenue, Drive is North near White Rock lake, Avenue is near Oak Cliff.


Contined...
August 18, 2015 at 5:31 PM Edit Delete Flag Quote & Reply

Ed Ledoux
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Posts: 1106



Daniel T. McGown obit

Birth: Aug. 28, 1907- Death: Mar. 6, 1985



Daniel T. McGown was born in Caldwell, Texas. He was educated at the University of the South and Georgia School of Technology. He graduated in 1931 with a B.S. in architecture. From 1946-48 he was with Norton and Rice Associates, then opened his own office, which he kept until retirement. Some of his principal works are located on Memphis State University (Biology and Chemistry Bldgs.) He taught architectural drawing at Memphis Academy of Art and was a member of the American Institute of Architects, serving as President of the Memphis. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10759099





Not the kind of person to make unsubstantiated claims.

Writes out ten pages to the FBI detailing his memories.

So what to make of the Lee Oswald letter to Jake and the Diceman address?





In an FBI report, https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=9963&relPageId=348&search=diceman

A. R. Byrdon manager since 1958 of General Rental Co. at 2514 Birdsong 948-7117, states the records for 1106 Diceman were destroyed by a fire in 1968.



Interestingly it is still a property rental co. there.

Birdsong Management Company Address: 2514 Birdsong Drive Dallas, TX 75203 Phone: (214) 948-7117

General Rental Corporation is one and the same as Birdsong Mng Co. which was Bailey Rental originally.



Echo has article about the Diceman issue

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=16247&relPageId=8&search=diceman

Has the manager as working for General Mng, since '69 (FBI report say's since '68)

Seems then the fire was not first hand account.

Seems the apt blg was a high class affair built in 1961







The main occupant of the third floor was the Hugh Perry Book Depository, a privately owned company, incorporated in 1927 and the predecessor of the TSBD. Hugh Perry acted as an independent agency for a group of publishers to warehouse and distribute textbooks to schools in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and New Mexico. Not far from the TSBD on 707 Browder Street was the Lone Star Schoolbook Depository, a rival company, which also warehoused and distributed schoolbooks.



On October 29, 1945, Hugh Perry hired a mysterious clerk named William Shelley. [7] According to news journalist Elzie Glaze, who met him in 1974, Shelley said he was an intelligence agent during the war and afterwards joined the CIA. [8] Since his previous job was a brief stint working in defense plants, it is possible that he served as an informant for some counterespionage unit. This undercover work carried over into Hugh Perry, where schoolbooks concealed clandestine shipments of guns and drugs. The second part of Shelley’s statement shows that, after the CIA came into existence in 1947, it took over this operation – and the agents assigned to it.

In 1947, Hugh Perry changed its name to the Texas School Book Depository. Five years later, the schoolbook companies moved into the first floor of the Dal-Tex Building.~William Weston



Hugh any relation to the Beverly J Perry which Wesley Frazier married?



Need more on Bailey's whom had rental business.

James Skip Bailey is person whom had control of company at one time till '87. aka Past President of Co.



Address, 10931 Wallbrook Dr Dallas, TX 75238



Also a Joe Bailey had interest in General Rental Co. and Skip was the agent.



another address for the business is, likely a office in the Turtle Creek High rise, or an attorney?

3525 TURTLE CREEK BLVD APT 2A DALLAS, TX !!!


http://www.3525turtlecreek.org/




The same building Jack Ruby was due to move into when he shot Lee Harvey Oswald.

The same building Lee Oswald is said to have taken a picture of, while behind General Walkers house, with the Imperial Reflex!











https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=9963&relPageId=348&search=diceman

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62481&search=diceman#relPageId=149&tab=page

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62481&relPageId=152&search=diceman

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=16247&search=diceman#relPageId=5&tab=page

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=9963&search=mcgown#relPageId=373&tab=page
--



“Is everything a conspiracy? No. Only the important stuff.” Jeff Wells, Rigorous Intuition



PM is THE litmus test of intellectual integrity for researching this case.
Those who fall back on the fuxxy picture defense are not of a caliber to understand the ins-and-outs of this case. ~ Terry Martin




August 18, 2015 at 5:32 PM Edit Delete Flag Quote & Reply

Ed Ledoux
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August 18, 2015 at 5:50 PM Edit Delete Flag Quote & Reply

Terry Martin
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Posts: 1143

Ed,


This is fascinating! As soon as I read the name of the Perry Book Depository, I thought of Frazier's Mrs.


And the Shelley as an intel agent sounds even stranger. Had been with Perry before it was TSBD and before he was CIA.


How many rabbit holes (AKA wormholes) can this case produce? I am beginning the think the number nigh on approaches infinity.
August 18, 2015 at 10:04 PM Edit Delete Flag Quote & Reply

Ed Ledoux
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Posts: 1106

Mahalos Terry, absolutely this case has some twists.
You could read as much or as little into this part as you want.
What was McGown up to at the cheesey Cedar Crest Heights apartments, looking to get laid on his wifes birthday?
Forget that he was so f'in embarassed he kept quiet till 1976.
I'd put more into McGown's recollections than Bob Jackson or Mal Couch (Just a couple Brennans
I don't put tons of weight into McGown either but want to get some idea of where LHO was if not at Neely St.
Why not Diceman? I think it is an overpriced day's inn but not sure of rents beyond what was put forth by a single tenant.
Seems they would have 1 and 2 bed apts and thus different rents.
Tried but can't quite see the finer print on the sign on the building



Place looks like a cheap motel,
I wonder if you could rent rooms by the hour?
No wonder the records burnt up.

August 19, 2015 at 12:08 AM Edit Delete Flag Quote & Reply

Ed Ledoux
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Posts: 1106


Sorry had Ruby moving to the wrong highrise in Turtle Creek,

21 Turtle Creek Square is the building being constructed.

http://fdmag.com/2014/04/turtle-creeks-bauhaus-box-50.html/



Today, high-rises can be found all over Dallas — but when did things first go sky-high? This year marks the 50th birthday of one of the oldest, 21 Turtle Creek Condominiums. As one of the city’s first residential high-rises, the building was among the earliest efforts of modern urbanization in Dallas. From changes in ownership to celebrity visitors to foreclosure, the building has seen its ups and downs — but things are decidedly looking up at the moment.



Ground was broken in the summer of ’62 next to the former 1907-built Jesuit High School. With an address of 3883 Turtle Creek Blvd., the land was a prime piece of real estate then and now. The $12 million building was first called 21 Turtle Creek Square because it sat on part of the generous, 21-acre Jesuit parcel bordered by Turtle Creek Boulevard, Blackburn Street and Irving and Oak Lawn avenues. It debuted on January 31, 1964, as an affordable but quite luxurious high-rise. Each apartment’s color scheme? Olive green, antique gold or turquoise blue. Residents enjoyed two swimming pools, a putting green, men’s and women’s health spas (complete with steam closets and vibrating-belt waist massagers) and a Japanese garden with a koi pond lined in slate. A former outbuilding boasted one of Dallas’ finest supper clubs, the Moorish-themed 21 Turtle Club, which was considered the place to see and be seen in the ’60s. Two private gas pumps — regular and ethyl — were installed for residents’ low-slung Mercurys and Buicks.



The May 1967 edition of 21’s Turtlegram newsletter featured the well-decorated home of Mrs. Frank Chinn, apartment 806



The May 1967 edition of 21’s Turtlegram newsletter featured the well-decorated home of Mrs. Frank Chinn, apartment 806



The building has had its share of controversy. Two days before the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby planned to move into a $195-a-month apartment at 21. He shared his intentions with entertainment columnist Tony Zoppi of The Dallas Morning News, saying, “Tony, I’ve skimped all my life. Now I want to live a little.” (Zoppi replied that, at 21, Ruby would be living large “in tall cotton.”) Ruby never got to enjoy the view: He spent what would’ve been his move-in day in a jail cell for gunning down Oswald. Actress-model Gennifer Flowers was living at 21 when the frenzy of her self-proclaimed affair with Bill Clinton prompted paparazzi to dig through the building’s garbage bins in search of dirt on the scandal. Paul Neinast, the A-list hairdresser to celebrities and Dallas society women, resided on the 22nd floor with his big white poodle Leopold. Neinast was found mysteriously dead in his bed in December 2012.






August 19, 2015 at 10:30 AM Edit Delete Flag Quote & Reply

Terry Martin
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Posts: 1143

Thanks, Ed. I simply knew there was a "big-hair" connection to the assassination but I could never find it, until now.



Wny Ruby would forego living with a fancy koi pond for a small gray cell is strange. Perhaps he was allergic to the fish?
August 19, 2015 at 11:35 AM Edit Delete Flag Quote & Reply

Ed Ledoux
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Posts: 1106

Good question. Maybe hoping for house arrest?
August 19, 2015 at 4:44 PM Edit Delete Flag Quote & Reply

John Mooney
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Posts: 48

There are a few 1960s pictures of the front of the Carousel Club on the internet, posters and doorway. I don't see a mailbox.

"I thought I might drop by and see if Lee Oswald was related to my friend and also see if she was an applicant for a performing strip-tease artist"

I'm having a problem believing this. How many Oswalds were living in the States at the time?

He may have been hoping "she" was a prostitute as well as a stripper?


August 20, 2015 at 2:35 AM Edit Delete Flag Quote & Reply

Ed Ledoux
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Posts: 1106



Maybe a mail slot on the door?

Got a better view John?
August 20, 2015 at 11:53 AM Edit Delete Flag Quote & Reply

John Mooney
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Posts: 48

Ed Ledoux at August 20, 2015 at 11:53 AM



Maybe a mail slot on the door?

Got a better view John?

Not one that shows the door front on.



But... "he accidentlly knocked all of the mail out of the mailbox"



I'm wondering what kind of mailbox you could knock all the mail out of? Doesn't sound like a slot in the door.



Mailbox in USA is normally a box?



Maybe the box was behind the door slot and stuff was overflowing or not pushed through properly?
August 20, 2015 at 3:33 PM Edit Delete Flag Quote & Reply

Ed Ledoux
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Posts: 1106

That is the problem I am having too. No dead on shots, its like every photographer was scared to take a picture of the front door....

Well Yes could be either, the mail was not pushed all the way through, sometimes they would do that when delivering. That way your mail doesn't get all wet and soggy on the front entryway mat.

Or yes out of camera range is a box that the stranger knocked the magazines and thus the other mail out.

Need a regular visitor to the club to answer the mail slot/box conundrum
August 20, 2015 at 7:41 PM Edit Delete Flag Quote & Reply

Ed Ledoux
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I highlighted some areas. Door has what looks like an inside mail box. Door looks solid. Inside box would fill easily if slot goes to outside. Plausible...Still his entry way is shaped different than the box that is the carousels. He draws it as angled...hmm well an old memory may be off on the exact details but the main ones are the name of the street and the name on said fallen mail, Jake and Oswald? Then the address for the period of time LHO is supposedly at Neely and or Beckley.
Was the Cedar Crest Heights apartments ever used as a safe houses? What was the evidence for a fire that destroyed the records?



August 20, 2015 at 8:06 PM Edit Delete Flag Quote & Reply

Ed Ledoux
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Posts: 1106

Demolition Man

By Denise Mcvea

Thursday, November 2, 1995 | 20 years ago

Virtually every day, a guy named Joe Bob Burkleo climbs onto a DART bus, rides into neighborhoods he doesn't live in, and pokes around in vacant houses and shabby properties that belong to people he doesn't know.

After cruising Dallas' residential streets most of the day, he'll end his journey at City Hall, where he'll bounce into the city's Code Enforcement department and unload on inspectors his endless reports of peeling paint, loose shingles, and high weeds, among other homeowners' transgressions.

Burkleo, 43, says his one-man crusade against substandard housing and his tireless neighborhood wanderings are an obsession--"like a bingo addiction." He stated in a sworn deposition in 1994 that he'd lodged some 35,000 complaints with the city concerning people's homes, apartment complexes, and commercial buildings in a six-year period beginning in 1989--a mind-boggling average of 5,833 complaints a year.

In an interview with the Observer later, Burkleo would backpedal on that figure, explaining he'd drunk two bottles of wine before testifying under oath for a lawsuit involving General Rental Properties, a collection of badly deteriorated apartment buildings in East Oak Cliff. But several folks who have worked with the URSB and Burkleo reckon that figure is pretty close to the truth.

Whatever the case, there's a good chance that, if someone complained about the condition of your Dallas home--and the city recorded some 18,200 code-violation complaints in fiscal year 1994--that someone was Joe Burkleo.

Most people in Dallas would be surprised to find out that one of the most powerful men behind Dallas' urban rehabilitation efforts doesn't even work for the city, and, in fact, doesn't work at all.

Joe Burkleo--whom one angry landowner calls the city's "informer"--conducts most of his personal crusade without any public scrutiny. He does sit on the DART board--having been elected in a neighborhood meeting. He's also a member of the city's multifamily housing task force, and because of this, generally has the run of the city's housing departments. He meets occasionally with City Manager John Ware, and this association ensures that city officials and members of the Urban Rehabilitation Standards Board treat him with respect.

On a Sunday afternoon in July, Burkleo took the bus to a stop just south of Interstate 30 on Beckley Street. There, in 95-degree weather, dressed in his customary white short set, his prominent belly straining under a T-shirt, he began clipping the branches of a tree and placing the cuttings in a pile by the curb.

I stumbled across him there as he worked tirelessly, occasionally brushing beads of sweat from his forehead. For some odd reason, Burkleo dropped a bunch of leafy branches over the long-handled tree clipper just as I walked up, so the branches hid the clippers.

"I'm just cleaning up this lot," he explained to me, seeming surprised--and slightly displeased--that I'd come by.

"Is this your property?" I asked.

"No," he said. "But I do this all the time. I'm always cleaning up property downtown. I can't stand to see trashy properties like this. Do you see all this?" he asked, pointing to the branches he'd just clipped and piled up. "The city just leaves it."

Burkleo carried on briefly about the unsightliness of tree branches being piled on the curb, even though he was the one who put them there.

Ignoring the clippers, he then ambled about, picking up stray pieces of paper, until I left.

Burkleo also says he filed a police report earlier this year on a man who walked up into his parents' driveway and punched him out. He says he'd never met the man, but thinks the attack had something to do with his work in code enforcement. He says he's certain the attacker is a Dallas police officer, because police have done nothing about the incident. Jim Chandler, spokesman for the Dallas Police Department, says police have no record of it.

Last year, the criticisms against Burkleo took an ugly turn. The activist became the target of a Dallas Fire Department arson investigation. It seems that someone-- department officials refuse to say who--called the department and gave them a list of homes under review by the URSB. The source noted that at least three houses Joe Burkleo was complaining about had mysteriously caught fire. "They found it all very strange," says Dallas fire captain Randy Sanders.

Fire department officials began conducting an investigation. They found that the houses weren't located in any one neighborhood; the fires had been started in vacant houses all over town. The arsonist or arsonists used the same method for starting all the fires: just piling up junk lying around and lighting it somehow. No lighting agent of any kind was used, Sanders says.

After investigating, arson detectives called the activist downtown.

"It was based on false allegations," Burkleo says. Fire detectives gave him two lie detector tests; he flubbed one question on the first test, but passed the second test without a problem, he recalls. Still, the detectives were not convinced.

"They took me in the room and interrogated me for seven hours," Burkleo says. "They told me I would spend the rest of my life in prison if I'm found guilty of arson."

At times crying through the ordeal, Burkleo maintained his innocence. Finally, fire officials released him. He hasn't heard anything about the investigation since.

It was nothing more than harassment, he says. "They tried to frame me, because I am speaking out for African-Americans and Hispanics. They are a bunch of good 'ol boys against a white liberal. They tried to break me down. The city is very prejudiced."

After turning up no further leads, and failing to wrest a confession from him, the fire department dropped its investigation.

Burkleo does sometimes speak out for minorities. When the Dallas Park Board was thinking about changing the name of the Red Bird Park and Recreation Center to the Thurgood Marshall Center, Burkleo spoke out in favor of it. "The African-American and Hispanic people need to have role models," he argued. "And if it's something as simple as changing the name of a school or recreation center, the [white] people should accept that."

When parts of Oak Cliff were threatening to secede from Dallas, Burkleo criticized the area's white residents, who led the secession effort, saying they were trying to avoid dealing with the growing minority population in the area. "All they are trying to do is control the black population, as they've always done," he said.

Yet minority activists have also criticized Burkleo, because most of the victims of the city's aggressive demolition program, which he has avidly supported, are minorities. Of all the criticism he gets, the notion that his code enforcement efforts have victimized black and Hispanic residents hurts the most, he says.

These days, Burkleo says he saves his energy for "wealthy white slumlords, who suck the community dry and then walk away." Burkleo's latest campaign is aimed at the Southern Oaks Apartments in East Oak Cliff, owned by Southern Oaks Enterprises of Washington, D.C., and a ratty apartment complex on Diceman and Birdsong in South Oak Cliff, owned by General Rental Properties of Dallas.

The Southern Oaks Apartments, located at 3152 Southern Oaks, are indeed an eyesore. And the General Rental Properties apartments, owned in part by a Dallas man named James "Skip" Bailey, are dilapidated and unpleasant. Both complexes have unsecured, vacant, and crumbling buildings swallowed up in high weeds. Both companies have filed lawsuits to keep the city from demolishing their properties.

Representatives of the two companies did not return calls from the Observer.

"These are the people who are responsible for the deteriorating neighborhoods--the wealthy landlords," Burkleo says. "The city has to be able to fight them."

He has testified in several housing-related court hearings for the city. But his opponents say the city relies too much on a man who is not a trained inspector, or even a troubled neighbor.

Landlord Christina Swann, involved in a bitter and protracted fight with the city over her apartment complex on Haskell in East Dallas, says Burkleo is lazy. "He drives by and sees the overhang on my apartment," she states, "so he says it's not level. But it is supposed to be doing that to drain the water out. Anybody with a sound mind would know right away that the building is architecturally done that way. It also shows you that he did not get out of the car. He just went by to have something negative to say. If he was real serious about it, he would have got out, walked around, and found some other things."

Burkleo even testified in Swann's criminal trial for burglary, claiming she'd broken into the apartment of one of her tenants. (She is appealing the burglary conviction.)

Swann, who calls Burkleo the city's "informer," says she was shocked to see him in the courtroom, since her criminal case had nothing to do with code enforcement, and he does not live in her neighborhood.

"He goes on the stand to say, 'She has the worst reputation in the neighborhood,'" Swann recalls bitterly. "Am I a hooker? Am I a shoplifter? What was he talking about? That guy is trash to me."

Poor Joe. So misunderstood, so hated. Still, every day, Burkleo continues his fight against urban blight. He gets on that bus, travels all over Dallas, and looks for the code violations that betray some culprit who doesn't share his philosophy about substandard housing.

And when he finds them, the city finds them. It is this process that, in large measure, drives code enforcement and urban rehabilitation in the city of Dallas.

"I just want people to know," he says, convinced of the need for his quest, "that Joe Burkleo has fought all his life for the underdog.


1106 Diceman is an empty lot now and was bought by a baptist church to build upon recently. ~ Cheers


August 20, 2015 at 9:29 PM

Ed Ledoux
Moderator
Posts: 1106

JAMES SKIP BAILEY 10931 WALLBROOK DR DALLAS TX 75238

Very recent addy for skippy
August 20, 2015 at 9:39 PM