BECKHAM, Thomas

Held a bunch of degrees and ordinations from university and church mills, with some being obtained through Jack Martin or Fred Crisman, and probably used as cover for intelligence activities. His Doctor of Divinity for example, came from The National Spiritual Association, Inc - a mill factory that helped spawn "revelations" of such things as the "Ascended Masters" - claptrap so beloved of Fascists and intelligence boffins.

Formed at least two companies in Washington State with Crisman who, at the time they met, was running his American Association of Parapsychologists. According to Crisman, their meeting was arranged through another member of that group, Harry Dahl of UFO fame. According to Beckham, they met when Crisman came to see him after he had answered one of Crisman's parapsychology ads.

One of the outfits set up by Beckham and Crisman was the grandiloquently titled National Research Bureau in which Beckham handled the twins of mass mind manipulation, psychology and advertising with research into parapsychology, metaphysics and ontology thrown in for good measure. Another was called the Institute of Criminology. Naturally, for this, Beckham was a Criminologist. In all likelihood, it was their very own mail order degree mill.

Beckham was also a country singer under the stage name of Mark Evans, and he and Crisman flew to New Orleans in 1966 to promote his debut album.

At some stage he later became involved in businesses, including a thrift shop, with Lt Col. Lowery who at the time was Director of the Operations Office of the Planning Division of the Strategic Air Command based at Alford AFB. Lowery had flown F-86 Sabre Jets in Korea. Note that Crisman had also been a pilot in Korea. And just what was it about the thrift shop business that was so appealing? Harry Dahl, Carlos Bringuier, and Beckham & Lowery all owned one or more at various times. Beckham claimed he met Lowery when Lowery's wife answered an ad looking for investors in his traveling road show, but instead, put their money into the shop - a story that beggars belief. This partnership dissolved when Lowery shipped off to Vietnam.

Related Entries: Ferrie, David; Church, Old Roman; Church, Universal Life; Crisman, Fred; Stranges, Dr Frank.

Associations: CIA; anti-Castro Cubans; Old Roman Church; Universal Life Church; David Ferrie; Jack Martin, Fred Crisman; Dr Frank Stranges; Lt Col. John Lowery; Roswell Thompson

Assassinations linked to: JFK

Assessment: Eager, naive, malleable and semi-literate. Just right for a foot-soldier, fall guy, or wanna-be country singer.

Hi Greg, i am in the preliminary stages of an investigation into Thomas Beckham and his associations and am particularly interested at this point in developing a time line establishing how far back some of them might go.

Do you happen to know when this "thrift shop" partnership between Beckham And LT. Col. Lowery was in operation and where it was located?

Presumably you find it odd that the Director of Operations of the planning Division of the Strategic Air Command had the inclination to open a "thrift shop" and having arrived at that destination, chose Thomas Beckham as his partner?

STEVEN PAUL

A odd fact that connects the association of Beckham, Martin, Crisman, Brady Durham, and Lowery is Beckham's "music career."

Beckham claimed to have known Martin as far back as the age of 14 or 15, during which Martin attempted to promote his music career. In 1960 when Beckham was 17, the first attempt to obtain a recording contract occurred. Jack Martin, using funds obtained from Beckham's father, hired a New Orleans based lawyer with alleged music connections by the name of Brady Durham. Of particular note is that Jack Martin, Guy Bannister and Brady Durham formed a legal corporation called the Cuban Revolutionary Front around the same time that two of the three were attempting to launch Beckham's budding music career.

Crisman "claimed" to have been introduced to Beckham by Fred Dahl, allegedly as someone whose music might prove profitable. The promotion of Beckahm's records is the alleged motivation for the trip between the two to New Orleans and Dallas during 1966. Notice that the relationship between Crisman and Dahl date back to at least the summer of 1947. Another interesting "coincidence" that you have already pointed out, but bears repeating is that Fred Dahl is also in the "thrift store" business.

Beckham claimed he met Lowery as a result of lowery's wife responding to Beckham's advertisement seeking potential investors to help promote the road tour of a band Beckham was hoping to go on the road with. It is my understanding that this meeting resulted in an alternative venture of a "thrift shop" between Lt. Col Lowery and Beckham which ultimately turns out to be unprofitable.

Notice that Beckham claimed that he met Crisman by responding to an advertisement for Crisman's American Association of Parapsychologists, which differs from Crisman's version of how the two met. While Crisman did presumably end up attempting to promote Beckham's music career, there is no evidence of much in the way of profit in this venture. There is evidence that Beckham and Crisman were partners in several other "ventures" during this time period and that none of them have been proven to be profitable.

With the several ventures that Beckham was involved in during the period between 1965 and 1966 producing either no income or next to no income, one might conclude that profit was not the goal of the venture in the first place. The lack of profit for these ventures is noteworthy because during this time Beckham has no apparent means of support.

Also worth noting is that not only was Beckham the beneficiary of "Ordination" along with his 1965 era music promoter Fred Chrisman, but Jack Martin the 1960 era music "promoter" of Beckman was as well.

All three music lovers were to become ordained Bishops, Martin and Beckham in the American Orthodox Catholic Church, here after to be referred to as the AOCC. As has previously mentioned, both Fred Crisman and Thomas Beckham were also affiliated with the Universal Life Church.

While the AOCC as referred to here, did not come about until 1964, all four men that did some degree of investigatory work for Guy Banister during the summer of 1963, Jack Martin, David Ferrie, Thomas Beckman, and Thomas Jude Baumler would all become ordained Bishops in the AOCC.

Martin, one of the bishops was to make allegations as early as 11-22-63 that Banister and Ferrie were involved in the Kennedy assassination and these preliminary allegations formed the basis of the Garrison investigation. When Garrison began to investigate the case in earnest, Banister was beyond prosecution, having died in the summer of 1964. Two of the Bishops, Ferrie and Crisman were to become suspects in Garrison's investigation. A fourth, Beckham gave over one hundred and sixty pages of the most incomprehensible testimony to the grand jury in the history of mankind. Baumler is alleged to have given off the record corroboration that Clay Bertrand was also Clay Shaw. All five of these "Bishops" were to become involved with investigation into the Kennedy assassination in some way or another.

It is noteworthy that a comparison between the business ventures of Beckham and associates and the religious ventures bare comparable fruit. There does not appear to be any followers of the "Bishops" and no houses of worship where they presumably would attract them.

In both instances, it would seem the ultimate goal is not the one that might otherwise be expected.

Steven,

Some great info.

I owe you a huge apology. I read these replies, and meant to acknowledge them at the time, but got sidetracked and forgot about it.

What prompted me to look at it again is that Peter Levenda has joined the forum. Maybe he can add to what you posted.

Can we upload PDF files here?
I was going to post the Beckham testimony but could not find the way to do it.
I found how to share a picture and a link but could not find how to share from my personal desktop files.

Andrea Skolnik wrote:Can we upload PDF files here?
I was going to post the Beckham testimony but could not find the way to do it.
I found how to share a picture and a link but could not find how to share from my personal desktop files.

Andrea, you can share from your desktop files, but only certain types of files are allowed. Unfortunately, pdf isn't one of them. I already have his HSCA interview transcription up on my main site. If you're referring to his GJ testimony, I can put that up on the main site, as well. It can handle pdf.

I will find a work around for the files I want to share
I still use PDF for larger files because they are so easy to read and bookmark and color code.
I thought I would start linking to follow up material as I read the various threads.