Erasing the Past to Protect a Fairytale

86  Army intelligence records on Fort Hood arms theft



Related:
6. The Hosty Note
7. The Shanklin Memorandum
13 Lee Harvey Oswald's army intelligence file
81 Fourteen Hour recording of Oswald's interrogation
82 James Powell's other 22-11-1963 Love Field/ Dealey Plaza photographs
83 James Powell's notes 
84.The after-action reports of Edward J. Coyle
85 Henry Gonzáles' images of Kennedy's body at Parkland

Erasing the Past...Discussions

"One federal agency that has failed to produce any documents is U.S. Army Intelligence.
The Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence of the U.S. Army says it
has found no records on the investigation of the Fort Hood arms thefts or on Capt.
George Nonte, a suspect in the thefts."

TRUTH IS not only stranger than fiction: it also emerges more slowly.
Consider the unlikely story of John Elrod, a long-lost witness to events surrounding
the murder of President Kennedy 31 years ago. A recluse who now lives in Tennessee,
Elrod says that he had a brief conversation with Lee Harvey Oswald in the Dallas City Jail
late on the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963.

If Elrod's story is true—and many of its details have been confirmed—the accused
presidential assassin knew about the inner working of a gunrunning network that was
under investigation by federal agents in Dallas in the fall 1963. These gunrunners trafficked
in weapons stolen from U.S. government arsenals, And, according to recently released FBI
documents, two of them were suspected of supplying guns to anti-Castro groups that were
planning to mount an invasion of Cuba in the last week of November 1963. The Elrod story
indicates that Oswald was privy to one of their gun deals and willing to talk about it the day
he was arrested.

In the fall of 1963, Frank Ellsworth was an agent for the Internal Revenue Service,
division of Alcohol and Tobacco Tax (now known as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms or ATF). He was investigating a gun shop owner named John Thomas
Masen for possible violation of federal firearms laws.

In 1978, Ellsworth told investigators from the House Select Committee on Assassinations
how he pursued the case. He represented himself to Masen as a policeman from
Irving, Tex., who was "not terribly honest" and ''hungry for a little extra money" which
he hoped to make in the gunrunning game. Ellsworth testified that as the relationship
became chummier, Masen offered to put him in touch with a man named "Nonte" inside
Fort Hood, the huge U.S. Army installation located in Killeen, Tex. Nonte, Ellsworth recalled
Masen saying, was "in a position to give us unlimited supply of almost anything
the military had in the way of ordnance."




When Ellsworth visited Fort Hood in late October 1963, he asked criminal investigators
from the Army and the FBI at the base about the thefts. "They told me somebody
was stealing them blind," the ATF agent testified. Ellsworth learned that George Charles
Nonte Jr., a U.S. Army captain, was effectively in charge of all ordnance at the base.
Nonte, who died in 1978, had a top secret clearance and was one of the world's leading
experts on firearms, eventually authoring many books on guns. Ellsworth told the investigators
at Fort Hood about Nonte. With their encouragement, he continued to prepare
his case.

The ATF agent did not suspect that the FBI had an entirely different agenda for his
suspects. Recently released FBI records show that the bureau, instead of treating
Nonte like the target of an investigation, interviewed him without Ellsworth's knowledge
and requested a favor: They asked him to obtain some information from John Masen.

One of the FBI agents aware of the intelligence reports on Dallas gunrunning,
according to recently released FBI documents, was a man named James Hosty.
Hosty was also the agent in charge of the bureau's file on Lee Harvey Oswald before
the Kennedy assassination. Oswald was a 24-year-old ex-Marine who had defected to the
Soviet Union and returned to the United States two and a half years later. Hosty's address
and license plate number were found in Oswald's personal notebook. This notation,
moreover, appeared in the notebook under the date of "Nov. 1, 1963."
That was the same day that the Dallas FBI office received an inter-office communication
on Masen.

(...)

At the same time, Frank Ellsworth's investigation was coming to a head. On the evening
of Nov. 18, 1963. the ATF agent was preparing to arrest John Thomas Masen. In his
sworn testimony and a 1993 interview, Ellsworth recalled arranging with Masen to make
a big buy of stolen guns—the latest and best stuff, he had been assured.
But again the FBI acted behind Ellsworth's back. Unbeknownst to the ATF agent, an FBI
agent and four detectives of the Dallas Police Department were conducting a stakeout at a
lonely intersection just blocks away.

According to court records from the sesulting criminal
trial, the lawmen crouched in two unmarked cars watching a pale blue 1962
Thunderbird convertible pull up alongside a white Dodge. They saw two men get out and
start passing a number of high-powered rifles and shotguns from the white car to the adjacent
convertible.

When the Thunderbird pulled away, the FBI agent and two detectives radioed for help.
Two Dallas police officers cruising nearby in their squad car followed radio instructions to
arrest the men in the Thunderbird for a traffic violation. When the patrolmen turned on their
toplight and honked for the Thunderbird to pull over, the convertible sped off.

The ensuing chase through downtown traffic reached speeds of 60 mph. Five blocks later
the Thunderbird sideswiped two cars, tried to make a left turn at full speed and crashed
head on into a utility pole.

The driver of the Thunderbird got out and managed to run some 30 feet before being
tackled and arrested. His name was Donnell Darius Whitter. He worked at a local Texaco
station where he fixed cars—including that of Jack Ruby.

All the while Frank Ellsworth waited, not knowing that the FBI agent and the Dallas police
had intercepted the weapons that were intended for him. The ATF agent went to bed.
The next morning, Ellsworth went to Masen's gun shop to find out what happened. The
agitated owner told him to read the newspaper.

(...)

The disappointed ATF agent called a meeting of federal agents familiar with the Fort
Hood arms thefts. They included James Hosty of the FBI and a U.S. Army counterintelligence
officer named Edward J. Coyle. On the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, while the rest of the city
buzzed in anticipation of President Kennedy's visit, the three agents discussed the Fort Hood
case. In a 1993 interview, Hosty explained that Ellsworth was particularly interested in the
possible involvement of the Dallas Minutemen in the thefts.

(Ray and Mary La Fontaine,The Fourth Tramp, Oswald's Lost Cellmate and the Gunrunners 
of Dallas, THE WASHINGTON POST, SUNDAY, August 7, 1994)


My caseload in the four-man counter-intelligence squad in the Dallas office was dominated by right-
wingers. I spent much of my time tracking the movements and actions of both Klan members and
members of former US Army General Edwin Walker’s radical militia group, known as the Minutemen.
Convinced there was a Communist hiding under every bush, the Minutemen had been quietly and
discreetly arming themselves with an impressive arsenal of weapons. In the eyes of the Minutemen,
Kennedy was at best a dupe of the Communists; at worst a Communist collaborator.

(James Hosty, Assignment Oswald, p. 4)

88   Bernardo De Torres pictures of JFK assassination



[Bernardo] De Torres is an incredibly intriguing personage who the HSCA showed a strong interest in.
In fact, he was actually questioned in Executive Session. Gaeton Fonzi writes about DeTorres in his
fine book, The Last Investigation. Except he conceals his name by calling him by the pseudonym
"Carlos". DeTorres had been a military coordinator for the Brigade 2506 part of the Bay of Pigs invasion.
(Davy, p. 148) He was strongly suspected of being in Dallas on 11/22/63. And even of having pictures
of Kennedy being killed in Dealey Plaza. He had been offered a large sum of money for the photos by 
Life magazine. (See Probe Vol. 3 No. 6) Further, DeTorres claimed to know that Oswald was not
involved in the assassination since he knew who actually was involved. And he knew this because
"they were talking about it before it even happened." (Fonzi, p. 239) Later on, DeTorres worked with
legendary CIA arms specialist Mitch Werbell, who some suspect of being involved in designing the
weaponry used in Dealey Plaza. (See Spooks, by Jim Hougan, pgs 35-36)

(James DiEugenio, review of Legacy of Secrecy)


DeTorres on the right

So who was Bernie really? He told me once he had photographs of Dealey Plaza during the Kennedy
assassination tucked away in a safe deposit box. He also admitted to a close friend of mine that he
knew Lee Harvey Oswald. It has been reported that he showed up at Silvia Odio’s house in Dallas
with Oswald. His list of connections included mafia dons Santo Trafficante and Carlos Marcello, who
were both linked to the Kennedy assassination. Bernie took his secrets to the grave. His fall from
grace wasn't poetic. It was, for the most part, his own fault. I am sorry for not reaching out to him
in his later years. His death now haunts me.

(Owen Band, The Spy Left Out in the Cold, Miami New Times, 2019)

90   ATF Files on Masen/Nonte case


Related:
82 James Powell's other 22-11-1963 Love Field/ Dealey Plaza photographs
83 James Powell's notes
84 The after-action reports of Edward J. Coyle
86 Army intelligence records on Fort Hood arms theft
87 Army intelligence records on Captain George Nonte


Allegedly, a right-wing, Minute-Men arms dealer close to H.L. Hunt and Cuban exiles. ATF agent
named Frank Elsworth once arrested Mason (sic) (prior to the assassination) and subsequently claimed
he was a dead ringer for Oswald. Mason (sic), says Russell, is alive in Dallas area.

(ARRB Record Tracking Chart)

A special challenge for the Review Board might be the relevant ATF files
- both on the Masen/Nonte case and on the assassination in general.

(Paul Hoch, Echoes of Conspiracy, 1995)

An FBI document quoting Army Captain George Nonte describes
John Thomas Masen as "approximately twenty-three years of age,
5' 5" tall, 130 pounds, receding hairline, sandy hair, sallow complexion,
prominent nose, slender build .... " A record of his fingerprinting
on November 22, 1963, however, shows his height as 5' 9 1/2" and
his weight as 156 pounds.

Frank Ellsworth, agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms (ATF), arrested Masen for selling illegal weapons on November
20, 1963. He knew Masen well, having been involved as an
undercover agent in a planned major sting operation against Masen,
who was trafficking in illegal, stolen weapons. Masen escaped the
major sting that had been set for him, apparently due to FBI interference
that blew the ATF operation. Ellsworth then arrested Masen
on a minor charge; Masen was released on bail.

When Ellsworth was in the Dallas police station after Oswald's
arrest on November 22, he looked at Oswald and thought that he
had just turned loose the man who had killed the president.

(Noël Twyman, Bloody Treason, p. 580)


On March 11, 1964, Mr. John Thomas Masen, owner, Masen's Gun Shop, 7402 Harry Hines Blvd.,
Dallas, Texas, advised he handled 6 .5 ammunition and had acquired this ammunition from John
Brinegar, owner of The Gun Shop, telephone CH 7-2600. The photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald
was exhibited to Mr. Masen and he advised he was unable to identify this individual as being a
person to whom he had previously sold 6 .5 ammunition. Mr. Masen stated people in the gun
repair business in the vicinity of Love Field, Dallas, normally use the Trinity river bottom as a
place to test fire rifles. He advised the river levee is sufficiently high to provide ample safety.


Site of Masen's old Gun Shop

Mr . Masen stated he frequently used the Trinity river bottom to test fire guns. He described
this place as being approximately two miles west of his gun shop . This area was checked and
no cartridge cases or live ammunition was found . Mr Masen stated the only other gun shop
located in the vicinity of Love Field was the gun shop owned by John Brinegar . 

(Warren Commission, Volume XXVI: CE 2694 - Report of investigation of possible target practice)

92 ATF reports by eight agents who searched through TSBD


See also:
84 The after-action reports of Edward J. Coyle
91 Record of Ellsworth questioning Oswald

"In 1980, I filed a FOIA request based on a single ATF document in a
Secret Service release which named eight agents who helped go through the TSBD
on the 22nd. I wanted all other reports by those agents, and asked about
other assassination files. I was told that a search did not even turn up the
document I had submitted."



(Paul Hoch, Echoes of Conspiracy, 1995)