In search of 11/23/63 Richmond teletype RE: rifle

First topic message reminder :

This post is mostly a request for a specific document, but I figured I'd lay out why I'm looking for it and see if anyone has any comments or feedback. 
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Most people who've looked into the rifle chain of custody evidence have seen this teletype from SA Paul Brana in New York regarding the early search of Crescent Firearms records, sent at 10:41pm EST on the night of the assassination:




Fewer people have seen this teletype, sent by Brana three hours later:








The above teletype unambiguously says that Crescent records FAIL to reflect sale of the rifle, basically the exact same language used regarding H.L Green Company records in Dallas, whereas at 10:41pm Crescent was still "currently reviewing records". I haven't seen any evidence the New York Office ever contacted J.J. Edelson, but Richmond did follow through with International Arms Co., and sent a teletype to Washington, Dallas, New York, and Albany which set off the whole Century Arms saga. This response from Albany sent at 1:14pm EST on 11/23 references the Richmond teletype in its heading:




The key line is this: Dallas furnish Albany with complete description of rifle involved including serial number. Sutel immediately.


Dallas sent a reply 90 minutes later but it DID NOT include the serial number, which is ridiculous given that it was explicitly requested and a receiving record for the rifle at Klein's Sporting Goods wouldn't be reported to the Dallas FBI for another four hours:




 


Fast forward four hours later. Dallas finally receives word from Chicago (New York was advised by telephone two hours earlier) that William Waldman telephonically advised he had found a record showing receipt of the rifle from Crescent Firearms, but there is no evidence the information had been verified, and "discovery" of an actual shipment record from Crescent wouldn't be reported for literally another twenty-four hours, well after Oswald had been murdered:




Twenty minutes later, Dallas sent an admonishing teletype to Richmond and Albany ordering them to abort their investigation, and refusing to provide the requested "info. concerning rifle". Recall that the only requested info Dallas hadn't already provided at 1:46pm CST (to Albany) was the most important information of all, the serial number:
 





Even more absurd in the above teletype is that Dallas is refusing to provide information about the ammunition, given that no-one had any idea at this point who supplied it. Even more absurd is that half an hour later, New York sent a teletype to Richmond directing them to begin another investigation into the source of the ammunition. The lead on the ammunition was obtained from, of all places, Crescent Firearms:




Basically I am trying to locate the Richmond teletype sent in response to the 1:45am EST teletype from New York regarding International Arms Co. This Richmond teletype is what originally led the Albany Office to contact Century Arms. I cannot find it in the FBI Headquarters file on maryferrell.org, but I don't see what could be so sketchy about it that it would be suppressed. This is an important subplot to the rifle investigation and it seems like the only document I am missing for 11/23 is the teletype from Richmond. Has anyone seen this document?
If not any comments on my research would be appreciated.

-Tom

greg_parker wrote:Tom, I agree - CYA concerning incompetence should be firts eliminated before going to any other consideration.

But, "That said, there is a file on Waldman that is withheld in full, under court seal so exempt from the JFK Act, from the Chicago Field Office in 1953 - when Guy Bannister was the SAC." sure is interesting.

Here's the index to the withheld file, HQ 87-20826. It looks like it started with a lab report from FBI Headquarters to Chicago, followed by two reports from Chicago back to HQ:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=92595#relPageId=6

Another thing that's interesting, the FBI seems to have trusted Waldman a lot during the rifle trace investigation - almost to the point of it being suspicious IMO. The handwritten note on the Richmond Tel says "not necessary based on ??? of gun and purchaser" and refers to Dallas Serial 236. That file is a teletype sent out at 5:59 PM on Saturday (which was twenty minutes after the Chicago Field Office first reported that Waldman had telephonically advised that he found a record showing that Crescent Firearms was the supplier for the rifle) that ordered Richmond and Albany to shut down their rifle investigation:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62259#relPageId=64 (Phone Call)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62263#relPageId=124 (Shut Down)

At this point Albany had already found the record showing the rifle with SN 2766, and was preparing a teletype to send to Chicago ordering them to track down the purchaser of 2766 from Aldens. From what I can tell the teletype was never sent (another of my NARA deliveries):




So Dallas shut down this parallel rifle trace investigation based on a phone call from Waldman, even though: (1) At that point the official story was that Crescent records unequivocally failed to reflect sale of the rifle; (2) The Klein's records referenced by Waldman in his call had not been verified by any FBI agent; and (3) the corresponding records from Crescent wouldn't be discovered for another eight hours, and that's at the absolute earliest - the Crescent records were not reported/described in detail until after Oswald's death. 

It just seems like a lot of faith to place in a phone call, and faith that all the correct records would eventually be discovered and verified. The FBI at that point also had no way of knowing if the 2766 rifle from Aldens had a C prefix and would turn out to be a duplicate rifle. 

The Warren Commission caught on to this and ordered the FBI to finally do their due diligence in Spring '64 and trace the 2766 rifle from Aldens. The FBI dragged their feet, said the records were incomplete, and never found out who ultimately bought that gun. If the Albany investigation hadn't been shut down by Waldman's phone call, Chicago would have been digging through the Aldens records on Saturday afternoon.

It just seems like a lot of faith to place in a phone call, and faith that all the correct records would eventually be discovered and verified. The FBI at that point also had no way of knowing if the 2766 rifle from Aldens had a C prefix and would turn out to be a duplicate rifle. 

The Warren Commission caught on to this and ordered the FBI to finally do their due diligence in Spring '64 and trace the 2766 rifle from Aldens. The FBI dragged their feet, said the records were incomplete, and never found out who ultimately bought that gun. If the Albany investigation hadn't been shut down by Waldman's phone call, Chicago would have been digging through the Aldens records on Saturday afternoon.

A look at Waldman's background as given in testimony offers 3 possible entry-ways into intelligence work and/or informant roles.

Attending  Carnegie Institute of Technology

Working at Sears & Roebuck

Joining the Army Air Corp for WWII

Actually 4 if you include Klein's itself.

The level of trust exhibited does point to a pre-existing relationship, or at least a knowledge of a relationship he may have had with one or more other services/agencies. 

I am coming across a kind of pattern looking at others, where they have bounced around between various police forces (state and local) and various federal law enforcement and intel agencies... with other information leading to a very big suspicion that their real employer all along has either been military intel or CIA.

Yes greg_parker wrote:A look at Waldman's background as given in testimony offers 3 possible entry-ways into intelligence work and/or informant roles.

Attending  Carnegie Institute of Technology

Working at Sears & Roebuck

Joining the Army Air Corp for WWII

Actually 4 if you include Klein's itself.

The level of trust exhibited does point to a pre-existing relationship, or at least a knowledge of a relationship he may have had with one or more other services/agencies. 

I am coming across a kind of pattern looking at others, where they have bounced around between various police forces (state and local) and various federal law enforcement and intel agencies... with other information leading to a very big suspicion that their real employer all along has either been military intel or CIA.

This reminded me of the Lowell Brandle incident, the reporter who ordered an Enfield from Klein’s in 1965 using the name A.J. Hidell. Waldman did not contact the FBI right away, he first contacted a so-called “source” of his to determine that Brandle was behind the order, which seems like fairly odd behavior for a sporting goods executive:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62239#relPageId=26

Another thing is that Waldman completely took over the JFK investigation, which may have not been standard procedure for the FBI when dealing with Klein’s. In a case from October ‘63 where the FBI had to review the Klein’s records they dealt directly with Mitchell Westra, who was actually in charge of all the stuff Waldman testified about: 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=125102#relPageId=60

One thing that’s fairly certain IMO is that Waldman lied under oath. Waldman testified that the FBI had a shipping record from Crescent on the night of the assassination, and that the Hidell sales record was located based on comparing that information to the corresponding Klein’s receiving record. However, the Klein’s receiving record was not discovered until several hours after the FBI left Klein’s, and the Crescent shipping record several hours after that. 

I think it’s very possible that the FBI contacted Klein’s under pretext and told them they had a shipping record from Crescent, and that was the source of a lot of subsequent CYA, possibly including Feldsott’s affidavit, but IMO there is no way in hell that Waldman forgot he discovered the receiving record much later on Saturday afternoon (which led to the Richmond-Albany shut down). It’s hard to explain why he would make shit up like that unless he was covering for the FBI - or there was something shady going on.