Send Lawyers Guns & Money Pt2

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Professor Charles ("Chuck") Webster
Very little can be gleaned from the Warren Commission volumes about Charles Webster except that he had been at police head-quarters most of the day following the assassination; that he was a law professor at the Southern Methodist University (SMU); that he gave assurances to the DCLU delegation about Oswald's civil rights; that he had taken this delegation to Captain King for further assurances; that he may himself have been involved with the DCLU; and that he very likely attended a meeting with various officials regarding the upcoming arraignment. However, there is one document of no little interest in the HSCA subject files. It is a FBI memo regarding the American GI Forum and is dated June 20, 1960. This indicates that Bill Lowery had attended a meeting of a committee which had formed to support Webtser's run for Congress. The committee members were mainly CPUSA members or past members.[6] Lowery had been a founding member of the Dallas branch of the American GI Forum along with TSBD employee, Joe Molina. He had also been an FBI informant/infiltration agent since 1945. Another of those founding members was Felix Bartello (also an informant). Bartello was later to become a member of a Minutemen splinter group which had formed in support of Edwin Walker's efforts at Oxford. One of the other members, Ashland Burchwell, had been caught en-route to Mississippi with a car load of weapons.

In 1963, Lowery testified against a suspected communist named John Stafford before the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB) in Washington. Stafford is also mentioned in the above document. The case drew headlines when RFK asked Texas state authorities to refrain from taking action on Stafford until the Feds were through with him. Further controversy arose when Lowery's status as informant was blown when, at the hearings, he admitted he had infiltrated the GI Forum and other reputable groups for the FBI. The FBI predictably denied he was acting for anyone other than the CPUSA - a lie exposed through the release of files.

As a sidebar, it may well be the Stafford case that gave Edwin Walker the idea to allege RFK had intervened in having Oswald released from police custody after being arrested for the Apr 10 so-called assassination attempt. Prof. Webster seems to have had a very cozy relationship with the Dallas DPD for someone of so pink a hue.

Grier & Louise Raggio timeline
1938: Louise Ballerstedt joins the American Friends Service Committee and spends that summer working in Galena, Illinois for the Society of Friends

1939: Louise graduates from the University of Texas and is awarded a Rockefeller Foundation grant for a one-year internship at the White House. Here, she meets the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt, befriends LBJ and dates John Connally. While in Washington, she also works for the National Youth Administration (NYA)

1940: Louise returns to Austin still with the NYA, working under Jake Pickle.[7] April 19, 1941: Grier Raggio and Louise Ballerstedt marry after a short courtship. Grier, a lawyer, is working for the Department of Agriculture investigating misuse of food stamps for purchase of alcohol and other illegal substances

December 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese resulting in the US entering WWII and Grier is drafted

March, 1942: Grier is sent to Pacific Theater after initially being sent to New Orleans to attend Officer's Training School for Intelligence where he is rejected on security grounds. He serves with the 386th Air Service Group. During the course of the war he would send letters home highly critical of the US army

August 6, 1942: First son Grier, Jr is born

September, 1945: Grier returns from the war and works for the Veteran's Administration Board

1946: Second son Tom is born

1947: At the insistence of Grier, Louise enrols in Southern Methodist University law School

1947: Third son Kenneth is born. Louise drops out of law school

1948: Grier is relieved of duties while answering 8 charges of "Un-American activities" including; being a member of the Communist Party; a member of the American Spanish Aid Committee; a member of the American Civil Rights Union; that he had advocated and praised the Russian system of government to co-workers and; that on another occasion had advocated the overthrow of the government by force. He and Louise travel to Washington where Grier appears before the Veterans Administrations Loyalty Board. He denies all charges except one - telling a fellow worker that “there is no difference between Stalin forcing Communism on the countries of Europe and the US forcing democracy on them”. This statement he asserts, had been taken out of context. He is cleared by the board and returns to work. Throughout this period and perhaps beyond, the Raggio's claim their phone is tapped and that they are under constant surveillance

1949: Louise and Grier join the Unitarian Church

1950: Louise returns to law school

1952: Louise graduates and does volunteer work for the League of Women Voters and the Women’s Alliance of the Unitarian Church while practicing law part-time from home. Meanwhile, Grier is again the focus of government interest in his activities

1953: Louise obtains a job as an assistant DA under Henry Wade through the help of friend and mentor, Judge Sarah T Hughes. Judge Hughes would, after the assassination of JFK, administer the oath of office to LBJ

March 1, 1954: Grier is guest speaker at a meeting of the Peace and World Relations Group of the Temple Emanu-El Sisterhood. His subject is, "Are We in Danger of Losing Our Civil Rights and Liberties?"

1955: Grier Raggio opens a law office in the Rio Grande Building in Dallas [8]

April, 1956: Louise quits DA's office to join her husband's law practice. Firm is now known as Raggio & Raggio and specializes in divorce cases

1957: Louise's former employer, Jake Pickle, becomes director of the Texas State Democratic Executive Committee. Holds that position until 1960

1960: Louise serves on the newly organized Family Law Section of the State Bar

1961: Jake Pickle becomes a member of the Texas Employment Commission

1961: Sarah Hughes becomes a Federal District Judge

January 27, 1963: Grier debates Wyatt W Lipscomb, city attorney in Garland for the Soroptimist Club of Dallas at the Baker Hotel. Subject of debate is "Does Membership in the United Nations Serve the Best interests of the United States?" Louise is a club member

November 13, 1963: Ruth Paine files a petition for divorce stating she separated from Michael on September 1, 1962, and that for 6 months prior to
separation, she had suffered a course of "unkind, cruel harsh and tyrannical treatment and conduct" at the hands of her husband. Ruth's attorney in this filing was Louise Raggio.[9] Recall that the Paine's and Raggio's attend the same church

November 22, 1963 Morning: Grier and Louise are at the Trade Mart for the luncheon [10]

November 22, 1963 Evening: Grier gets a call either from an ACLU member in Austin (according Greg Olds) or from Washington (according to Louise) concerning either finding out if Oswald was being denied counsel (according to Olds) or asking that he witness Oswald's arraignment (according to Louise). Grier phones Olds about this. In turn, Olds phones police, then calls Grier back. Grier suggests they go down and check out the situation

November 22, 1963, 11:15 PM: Olds, Raggio and 2 other DCLU members meet across from City Hall at Plaza Hotel, then try to talk to Earl Cabell without success before speaking with Prof. Charles Webster outside the office of Captain Fritz

November 22, 1963, 11:40 PM: Webster takes delegation to Captain King

November 22, 1963, 11:50 PM: According to Wade, Grier Raggio and Charles Webster are both at a meeting just prior to the midnight press conference regarding the arraignment in the JFK case. David Johnston however, only named himself, Curry, Fritz, Wade and 2 or 3 assistant DAs as being present

Midnight: According to Olds, the others in the delegation go home at the time he goes down to watch the press conference [11]

1970: Grier and Louise's eldest son, Grier, Jr starts up a journal called "The New Democrat" which he edits with Stephen Schlesinger, son of JFK aide and historian, Arthur

October 26, 1970: Conservative journalist, John Chamberlain writes widely published article, "Where else Can Democrats Go?" predicts that Raggio (whom Chamberlain describes as a Mayor John Lindsay functionary) and Schlesinger are "sewing the dragon's teeth" through their support of McGovern which he states will lead to problems at the '72 convention unless the Left gets its way

1972: Gary Allen, a John Birch Society propagandist and author of "None Dare Call it Conspiracy" publishes "Richard Nixon: The Man Behind the Mask" which quotes from the Chamberlain article, suggesting that Nixon and some of the Left in the Democratic Party are "part of the same conspiracy".

According to Allen, the Left, with Raggio and chlesinger playing prominent roles, will split the party, ensuring an easy win for Nixon

guns & money
There are two other people named Raggio who turn up in the records. Any connection to Grier Raggio is unknown, and they are mentioned here only for the benefit of anyone who might have an interest in genealogy. The first is David L Raggio originally of Natchitoches, Louisiana. He was a WWII veteran who served with the 879th Airborne Engineers.

Raggio, in 1963 and by now a geologist, entered into a partnership with Richard Davis and Gus de la Barre. The business which resulted was known as the Guatemalan Lumber & Mineral Corp. In actuality however, it was a front for training Cuban exiles at camps in the area around Lake Pontchartrain.

The second is William Raggio. As Washoe County District Attorney and friend of Frank Sinatra, he was heavily involved in the investigation into the December 8, 1963 kidnapping of Sinatra's son, Frank Jr. In March, 1968, New Orleans played host to the National Convention of District Attorneys. An awards banquet was planned as part of the convention with Hubert Humphrey originally slated as guest speaker. When Humphrey withdrew after hearing how Garrison was criticizing LBJ over various aspects of the Shaw case, as well as the original investigation of the assassination, Garrison placed himself into the guest speaker role.

The organizing committee, fretting over what Garrison might say, requested a meeting with him. The meeting culminated in barbed exchanges between Garrison and Raggio - who had attempted to warn Garrison to leave out any mention of the assassination in his speech. Garrison reacted by cancelling the banquet and shipping all the catered food to an orphanage.

In 1970, Richard Nixon hatched plans to recapture a hostile senate for the Republicans at the Nov 3rd elections. To this end, he hand-picked 9 candidates. Among them was William Raggio. Raggio failed in his bid.

In 1972, he did win a seat in the Nevada state senate, and has held it ever since.


ENDNOTES
[1] Commission Exhibit 987 is a letter from Greg Olds to J Lee Rankin. It is on DCLU letterhead which lists all board members and other office holders within the organization.

[2] Also according to Louise Raggio, her husband had called Olds at the insistence of someone from the Washington Office - not Austin.

[3] Commission Document 87, p 549

[4] Treasure-Hunting in the National Archives, The Third Decade, vol 2, # 2 by Sylvia Meagher, January 1986. The document cited by Meagher in the article is found in Commission Document 5, p 400

[5] The 1:35 Arraignment and the Rewriting of History, The Third Decade, vol 3, # 4 by Timothy Cwiek, May, 1987

[6] NARA Record Number: 124-90010-10040

[7] Pickle bio: 1938; United States Navy, served three and a half years; area director, National Youth Administration, 1938-1941; radio business; public relations executive; director of Texas state Democratic Executive Committee, 1957-1960; member of Texas Employment Commission, 1961-1963). He had also been a political aide to LBJ and in Nov 1963 was the Democratic Nominee in the 10th District run-off with Republican Jim Dobbs. He was hated by the liberal faction of his own party who had got Kennedy over the line in Texas in 1960. In fact, one of those Kennedy supporters, Jack Ritter appeared on TV, Nov 21 urging those who had previously supported him to now support Dobbs, indicating that Pickle was not an acceptable candidate for the Democrats, and had been "less than forthright" during debates. Kennedy was due in Austin after the Dallas visit.

[8] The 112th MIG also had an office in the Rio Grande Building, as did the Immigration & Naturalization Service. The latter was listed in Oswald's address book

[9] Warren Commission Document 849, p33. As no further action was taken within 6 months of filing, the case was automatically dismissed

[10] November 22 - The Day Remembered by Morning News Staff, Dallas, p136

[11] Unless otherwise stated, background information on Louise and Grier Raggio has been sourced from the roster of the 386th Air Service Group; Louise Raggio's autobiography, Texas Tornado; Louise Raggio profile from the Texas State Bar; article published by the Texas Women Lawyers Association, "Louise B Raggio: Handing the Torch to Today's Generation" and; The Dallas Morning News archives

beowulf wrote:The threat would be the implied threat that things will go much harder in court unless you play ball like your partner is...

Can't speak for Australian legal system but in the US, 90% of criminal convictions result from a plea bargained guilty plea. If cops couldn't use, every day, the implied threat that things will go much harder in court unless suspect play ball (and if police can lie about a dead person being alive they can certainly lie about an accomplice being cooperative), the criminal justice system would grind to a halt.

Consideration should be given to greater external transparency of plea bargaining, even simply introducing a register to keep track of when these deals occur. In accordance with Charlie Bezzina’s discussion of the Mokbel plea bargain in Victoria, “these deals are an essential tool in saving court time and costs, but … closer scrutiny needs to be applied to these matters”. It would be a significant achievement to see informed and considered changes to plea bargaining across Australian criminal jurisdictions.
http://theconversation.com/plea-bargains-and-the-efficiencies-of-justice-8440

My key concern is hinted at in this story - that it can be misused and misapplied to, in some case, favor certain individuals, or in other cases, to scare someone into accepting a plea bargain rather than risk a maximum penalty, even though they are innocent (or at least cannot be proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt). It's a Game Show version of justice... pick a door...

While ever untold and largely unaccounted for billions are ploughed into phony wars and intelligence agency programs, the cost saving imperative when it comes to justice, education and health services will never wash with me.

beowulf wrote:Greg, perhaps people may sort of discount all of the interesting facts you point out about the people around Oswald in Dallas because they already suspect LBJ and his Texas cronies.
If the LBJ set was involved, whether or not Johnson himself was involved in murder plot, it makes sense that the Dallas ambush only happened after (if reports are to believed) prior related plots that fall in Miami, Tampa and Chicago fell through.

Just as serial killers tend to be pretty decent to their neighbors, I doubt the Texans wanted Kennedy killed so close to home if they could have helped it.

It's far more complex than "LBJ and/or his cronies did it". They certainly had nothing to do with the MC shenanigans for example.

Thanks Hasan,

I honestly wasn't fishing for a compliment. I was just a bit puzzled by the seeming lack of any interest in these areas.

But then, when you see 10,000 replies to a thread about 2 pixels being a police cap in the bushes, I guess I shouldn't be at all surprised!

Bart, this is more accurate:

By mid-evening Saturday I was concerned that every attempt be made to convince the media that Oswald's civil rights were not being violated. I escorted Louis Nichols, president of the Dallas Bar Association, into the jail to confer with the prisoner. even though the same was not done for Civil Liberties lawyers the previous night. Oswald at that time spurned an offer by the Dallas Bar Association for legal assistance. Not surprising really because what Oswald needed was the Crininal Bar Association - not the Civil Bar! But Mr. Nichols did discuss Oswald's right for legal council with him. Oswald indicated that he wanted Attorney John Abt of New York City to defend him. Abt had been recommended to Oswald by Prof. Chuck Webster sometime after Oswald shot his mouth off to the press that he wanted legal help, causing a mini panic among my men. It seemed only right that we offer the little commie the legal counsel for the communist party. If that failed his second choice would have been a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, but shucks, we told those dicks that there was "nothing to see here, boys" and they wandered off. Oswald seemed well informed of his rights and he never stopped demanding them, but we fixed that sure enough! Attorney Louis Nichols left completely satisfied that Oswald had not been denied counsel and that his civil rights were not being violated. Yes, that's right. I'm saying that a lawyer with zero criminal law or civil rights casework experience was who we let see Oswald to help convince the world Oswald was not being robbed of any rights. Nichols was a good ol' boy f'sure. Did a good job for us.

barto wrote:ha ha

Meanwhile Fritz claims on the 23rd that an attorney from Chicago offered his services but that Oswald declined anyone besides Abt or the Dallas CLU

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files%20Original/F%20Disk/Fritz%20Will%20Captain/Item%2004.pdf

Oswald never declined the offer from Chicago. As it says in the document, the DPD simply never gave him the telegram because Oswald had previously expressed that he only want Abt. 

Great find, Barto! It again shows how determined they were to keep real lawyers (Nichols was a jumped up ambulance chaser) away from him.

Mick Purdy wrote:

greg parker wrote:Bart, this is more accurate:

By mid-evening Saturday I was concerned that every attempt be made to convince the media that Oswald's civil rights were not being violated. I escorted Louis Nichols, president of the Dallas Bar Association, into the jail to confer with the prisoner. even though the same was not done for Civil Liberties lawyers the previous night. Oswald at that time spurned an offer by the Dallas Bar Association for legal assistance. Not surprising really because what Oswald needed was the Crininal Bar Association - not the Civil Bar! But Mr. Nichols did discuss Oswald's right for legal council with him. Oswald indicated that he wanted Attorney John Abt of New York City to defend him. Abt had been recommended to Oswald by Prof. Chuck Webster sometime after Oswald shot his mouth off to the press that he wanted legal help, causing a mini panic among my men. It seemed only right that we offer the little commie the legal counsel for the communist party. If that failed his second choice would have been a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, but shucks, we told those dicks that there was "nothing to see here, boys" and they wandered off. Oswald seemed well informed of his rights and he never stopped demanding them, but we fixed that sure enough! Attorney Louis Nichols left completely satisfied that Oswald had not been denied counsel and that his civil rights were not being violated. Yes, that's right. I'm saying that a lawyer with zero criminal law or civil rights casework experience was who we let see Oswald to help convince the world Oswald was not being robbed of any rights. Nichols was a good ol' boy f'sure. Did a good job for us.

Yep Greg,

This is far more accurate than any official document on the matter. It's a disgrace. What they did to this poor bloke is atrocious. My hope is one day in the near future we can show the rest of the sheep how this innocent man was framed by the Texas Good Ol' boys and co.

Henry Wade is to be included in this list, he was a complete asshole and had ties with Hoover and the FBI.

We have to get those films. It is probably the only way we are going to cause a media breakout with this and all esle we have on the back of it.

beowulf wrote:I don't understand what the DCLU (which was a local affiliate of the ACLU) were up to.  I've visited clients in jail, the sheriff or chief doesn't let a lawyer in unless you're there to represent the defendant. There's no hall pass for attorney delegations on a social call. When a lawyer walks in to talk to a defendant in jail, he's his lawyer until he's replaced by the  client or court by someone else,  period. The first things any legitimate lawyer would do-- even a civil lawyer with no criminal experience-- 1. Tell Oswald and police (and the press) that he isn't going to say one more word without counsel being present for every interview, 2. Inform Oswald it's simply impossible for John Abt or any other non-Texas lawyer to represent him without local counsel who's a member of the Texas bar. In other words, tell him "certainly  we can try to get the best defense lawyers in the country to help but you need a local lawyer to file pleadings and I'll do until we can find someone better, I'm it". Even a civil lawyer would know this much. And he'd know to immediately call the best local criminal lawyer in town and get him down there as co-counsel. That this doesn't happen is evidence that the fix was in with those Dallas lawyers.

Agree with Paul and Mick. This has far more wight than my musing because it comes from an expert in the field. It is exactly the kind of info that's been absent for 50 years, but is so critical to seeing what was really happening.

If I understand correctly, neither Nichols nor the DCLU should have been allowed to see Oswald unless Oswald had agreed to being represented by them. The fact that Nichols was allowed to see him, and by what he told the press and (as we know now) by what he failed to tell the press, his sole purpose was to help the DPD stamp out any suggestion Oswald was being denied his rights. 

This is a a keeper.