Troy Houghton: The Minuteman

That may be a reference to Gen. Walker. Walker gave ultra right wing Birch material to hsi troops in Germany and JFK fired him. He became a hero to the Birchers, Minute Men and States Rights groups. He later got involved in riots against segregation and RFK had him put into a mental instituion, and that became a big deal on the far right.

Walker later became famous again as he talked about a need to overthrow the government, and the movie "Seven Days in May" was inspired in part by him. It is said Lee Harvey Oswald took a shot at him, and some people called Walker an "American Hitler".

But I would bet that is what the reference is to, because he was a big deal on the right and RFK's treatment of him was considered unfair.

Walker later drifted into obscurity, and years later he got busted for soliciting gay sex in a bathroom (shades of Larry Craig, Ted Haggard, Hoover, etc.!).

Yes, scary stuff. Here's more on TH from an FBI doc:

AK Wilks wrote:

That may be a reference to Gen. Walker. Walker gave ultra right wing Birch material to hsi troops in Germany and JFK fired him. He became a hero to the Birchers, Minute Men and States Rights groups. He later got involved in riots against segregation and RFK had him put into a mental instituion, and that became a big deal on the far right.

Walker later became famous again as he talked about a need to overthrow the government, and the movie "Seven Days in May" was inspired in part by him. It is said Lee Harvey Oswald took a shot at him, and some people called Walker an "American Hitler".

But I would bet that is what the reference is to, because he was a big deal on the right and RFK's treatment of him was considered unfair.

Walker later drifted into obscurity, and years later he got busted for soliciting gay sex in a bathroom (shades of Larry Craig, Ted Haggard, Hoover, etc.!).

Yes, I have a ton on Gen. Walker (a MM).

Here's an FBI doc from 1959. When I told Bettie that Troy was involved in this in 1959, she seemed very surprised. "He was a Fuller Brush Man!", she replied.

From Minutemen handbook:

Ammonium Nitrate

There are two ways to procure Ammonium Nitrate: making it, or stealing
it. You can usually swipe it from any construction site, and if you've
got plenty of money to play with, just buy Instant Cold-Paks. A rather
powerful priming charge must be used, or a booster charge must be added.
The primer explodes, detonating the T.N.T., which detonates, sending
a tremendous shockwave through the ammonium nitrate, detonating it.

To make ammonium nitrate the hard way, follow these easy instructions:
Ammonium Nitrate - Fuel Oil Solution, also known as ANFO solves one of
the major problems with ammonium nitrate: its tendency to pick up water
vapor from the air. This absorption results in the explosive failing
to detonate when fired. This is less of a problem with ANFO because it
consists of 94% (by weight) ammonium nitrate mixed with 6% fuel oil
(kerosene). The kerosene helps keep the ammonium nitrate from absorbing
moisture from the air. This mixture, like straight ammonium nitrate, is
very insensitive to shock. It requires a very powerful shockwave to
detonate it, and is not very effective in small quantities. Usually a
booster charge, consisting of dynamite or a commercial cast charge, is
used for reliable detonation. Some commercial ANFO explosives have a
small amount of aluminum added, increasing the power and sensitivity.
These forms can often be reliably initiated by a No. 8 blasting cap.
These disadvantages are outweighed by two important advantages of
ammonium nitrate explosives- cost, and safety. In industrial blasting
these factors are much more important than in recreational activities,
and this has contributed to the popularity of these explosives. If the
explosive is initiated without confinement it not propagate well, and
most of the ammonium nitrate will burn and scatter, rather than
detonation as most other high explosives would. Ammonium nitrate
explosives are much cheaper per pound than most other explosives, with
the price per pound at about 1/10 that of dynamite. Straight ammonium
nitrate can be transported to the blasting site without the extract
expenses incurred when transporting high explosives. At the site, the
ammonium nitrate, in the form of small pellets, or prills, can be mixed
with the fuel oil just prior to blasting. If too much oil is added, the
power of the mixture will decrease, because the extra oil will absorb
some of the energy from the ammonium nitrate, and it tends to slow
propagation. If commercial fertilizer is used to provide the ammonium
nitrate, it must be crushed to be effective. This is because fertilizer
grade ammonium nitrate is coated with a water resistant substance which
helps keep moisture from decomposing the material. This material also
keeps the fuel oil from soaking into the ammonium nitrate. If
fertilizer grade material is poured into a vat of warm, liquified wax,
the coating will be displaced by the wax, which can also serve as fuel
for the ammonium nitrate.

Houghton had a class A license for explosives issued by the State of California. He was a miner in the 1950s.
Houghton was in charge of the explosive lectures for Minutemen recruits. Here is an excerpt from notes taken by a Minuteman at one of their meetings in July 1965:

Notes on explosives:
"First of all there are types of explosives.

1. Black power--explodes fuse or match spark--flame.
2. Dynamite 40-50-60-70% strength & lesser strength
3. T.N.T.
4. Nitro starch
5. composition B & C & C3 & C4
6. prima cord
7. Mercury Fulmanit
8. Fuse & electrical type detonating caps.
"280 Grains DuPont Powder for filling grenade
"buy for Flintock guns
"Bullseye is a good powder.
"Black powder is best. put in 2" pipe -- drill hole insert fuse light
fuse & throw & run."
Compare with Z's busbomb letter.

More on Houghton and explosives. From LA Times, Oct. 5, 1965, "New Revere on Horseback" by Paul Coates:
"Haughton [at a Minutemen training session] described and demonstrated the use of metallic sodium, which explodes in water. He told of an instance where gasoline was poured into a left-winger's swimming pool and then metallic acid was added. This caused the water and gasoline to explode and burn.


ZODIAC: November 9, 1969 BUS BOMB LETTER

Take one bag of ammonium nitrate fertilizer + 1 gal of stove oil & dump a few bags of gravel on top + then set the shit off + will positivily ventalate any thing that should be in the way of the blast.

The death machine is all ready made. I would have sent you pictures but you would be nasty enough to trace them back to developer + then to me, so I shall describe my masterpiece to you. The nice part of it is all the parts can be bought on the open market with no questions asked.

1 bat. Pow clock -- will run for aprox 1 year
1 photoelectric switch
2 copper leaf springs
2 6V car bat
1 flash light bulb + reflector
1 mirror
2 18" cardboard tubes black with shoe polish inside + oute

Troy and Bettie Houghton were married in 1954 while he was a service-station attendant and she an art student in Los Angeles. I wonder who was working at the Humble Oil gas station at LHR the night of the murders. Does anyone know? If TH was underground, he'd have had to make money somehow. I find the police report of the 1959 While Chevy Impala at LHR that night very interesting. That sounds like Z's car to me. TH drove an old beatup white car (Bettie didn't remember the model or make -- hmmm). The tire tracks at LB indicated t4 different kind of tires. Again, sounds like a beatup old car.

AK Wilks wrote:

That may be a reference to Gen. Walker. Walker gave ultra right wing Birch material to hsi troops in Germany and JFK fired him. He became a hero to the Birchers, Minute Men and States Rights groups. He later got involved in riots against segregation and RFK had him put into a mental instituion, and that became a big deal on the far right.

Walker later became famous again as he talked about a need to overthrow the government, and the movie "Seven Days in May" was inspired in part by him. It is said Lee Harvey Oswald took a shot at him, and some people called Walker an "American Hitler".

But I would bet that is what the reference is to, because he was a big deal on the right and RFK's treatment of him was considered unfair.

Walker later drifted into obscurity, and years later he got busted for soliciting gay sex in a bathroom (shades of Larry Craig, Ted Haggard, Hoover, etc.!).

ONE OF Z's MOTIVES WAS TO TAKE OVER THE PRESS, TO CONTROL WHAT THEY PUT ON THE FRONT PAGES. THIS SEEMS CONSISTENT WITH THE ABOVE GRIEVANCE REGARDING HOUGHTON BEING CALLED A SEX OFFENDER BY THE S.F. NEWSPAPERS, AND THIS BEING EMBLAZENED ACROSS THE FRONT PAGE. HERE'S MORE ON HOUGHTON'S VIEWS ABOUT THE PRESS:

Minutemen Trust Few in Fighting 'Red Takeover': Leader Addresses 150 at Van Nuys Meeting of Southern Freedom Councils
PAUL WEEKS
Los Angeles Times; Aug 23, 1964;

[skipping down to the important stuff]

[From a Minutemen pamphlet passed out at the meeting]
"The Communists realize that their control over the American news media is a weapon more powerful than their mechanized troops...all the media of mass communication are effectively controlled by the enemy so they can make people think whatever they want them to think." Haughton stressed the Minutemen contention that government, authority, power is corrupted by Communist infiltration.

[A movie of General Edwin Walker on Communist atrocities plays]

When the lights went on, Haughton wearing horn-rimmed spectacles leaned heavily on the lectern and read haltingly from his notes. He apologized for having a poor memory and having to read his remarks [reminds me of the BRS phone call]. Sometimes he couldn't read his notes and shrugged his shoulders.

[skip down]

(The [Minutemen] pamphlet says "...we must use our enemies' own tactics against them. Today's wars are not being won by massed armies or atomic bombs. They are being won by psychopolitical weapons, by infiltration, subversion, and espionage.")

Haughton urged infiltration into politics. One way to help a candidate, he said, would be to infiltrate the opposition party, and say, volunteer to distribute leaflets -- then throw them all down a storm drain.
Haughton laughed. The crowd laughed.

Or, he said, one could do wonders to sabatoge an organization by infiltrating it with a switchboard operator or a secretary who could cause no end of damage.

Two women, he said, infiltrated the organization of a long-established political machine in a Midwestern city two years ago and caused so much trouble and consternation the machine lost an election.

[skipping down]

Haughton went on to tell how the general public doesn't know it but all kinds of effective weapons, including military surplus, are available for purchase.

He also said with broad innuendo that rifle clubs are booming in California. You wouldn't find out from any rifle club member that he belonged to the Minutemen, said Haughton.

There were ways, he said, to get weapons and ammunition economically from the government for target practice and training.

"When our constitutional government is threatened," the pamphlet says, "we are morally justified in resorting to violence to discourage Communists and their fellow travelors."

Haughton followed the Minutemen line, as set down in the pamphlet, with remarkable accuracy.

The Minutemen pamphlet says, "the objectives of the Minutemen are to abandon wasteful, useless efforts and begin immediately to prepare for the day when Americans will once again fight in the streets for their lives and their liberty."

Quote :

That may be a reference to Gen. Walker. Walker gave ultra right wing Birch material to hsi troops in Germany and JFK fired him. He became a hero to the Birchers, Minute Men and States Rights groups. He later got involved in riots against segregation and RFK had him put into a mental instituion, and that became a big deal on the far right.

What year did JFK put Walker in a mental institution? Rand...you see where I am going with this question??

Did I miss this earlier...BUT what grade of school did TH finish?

Edited because I am stupid and forgot to ask...LOL!

I don't know when Walker landed in a mental institution. I don't know TH's level of education either. I think that he finished high school, but he had problems. This happened at age 14:

HOLY COW... Arson at 14...linked to a "White Knights" group even then...HOUSTON...we have a problem! Wouldn't be unusual to NOT refer those kids to some mental health even in the 50's? I'd bet there is alot of other petty crimes not caught doing that was committed by TH which would fit a profile of a disturbed person like the Z as young man. He was a terrorist even then based on the harassment of the victim.

TY for the links to the cointelpro...this just happened to be a piece I needed in a puzzle on a different subject. Still absorbing...stuff like that you have to read a few times to absorb. I'm Shocked (about the FBI/CIA angle)...but not so shocked sad to say.

You mentioned you had spoke to Betty Houghton...was she aware that his name was coming up in the Z theories?

No, I couldn't bring myself to tell her. She's put TH behind her for almost 40 years now. Three things she said did cause me concern:

1. She said she didn't remember TH's car being found on the side of the road. Then I told her that she reported this in the newspapers but she didn't mention the state (she didn't want that info revealed at the time, which makes no sense to me). Then she said: "Oh, right. I believe it was Nebraska, and that Harry Jones told her." But Harry told me he never said anything of the sort and didn't know where the car was found.

2. She didn't know what car it was that TH was supposedly driving. I think it was the one with Canadian license plates.

3. She said that she collected life insurance on TH in 1988. How? If he disappeared in 1967, and she didn't know where he was and assumed he was dead, how did she convince the life ins. co. to pay out in 1988?

And Seagull made this comment:

I have tried to find a death record for Houghton. I've looked in the Social Security Death Index as well as indivdual states death indexes. I looked for records that may have been filed under one of his aliases, too. I found nada.

I also looked to see if he was on any missing persons databases and came up empty. Harry Jones in his book "The Minutmen" states that Bettie, Houghton's wife, had filed missing persons reports in various cities and states where her husband was known to have been.

Bettie Houghton apparently never had Troy declared dead as she was granted a divorce from him in February 1972 almost five years after he was last seen. I found this a bit strange because Troy and Bettie had three sons, aged 4,5 and 12 at the time he went missing. If Bettie had Troy declared dead she would have been able to collect Social Security benefits to help raise her boys, it was something she did not do.

Seagull found this as well:

"One paragraph mentions that the SAO began after two of the Minutemen leaders were jailed and one was assassinated. It also names the firing range outside of San Diego, in El Cajon actually. I found one address attributed to Bettie (Houghton) Carter that's in El Cajon." Here's a link: http://crca.ucsd.edu/~esisco/friendlyfire/A1972.html

Some interesting excerpts:

In the Cross-hair
On January 6, 1972, cross-hair stickers (the symbol of the SAO) were placed on the doors of three San Diego State College professors, including Bohmer. Then, an anonymous caller telephoned Bohmer's residence to say, "This time we left a sticker, next time we may leave a grenade. This is the SAO." Bohmer's friends were called and told to say goodbye to him. That evening, two shots were fired into Bohmer's home and a woman named Paula Tharp was wounded. The right-wing terror campaign continued for six more months, marked by death threats, menacing phone calls, and warning messages. Its climax came on June 19, 1972, when an SAO member bombed a local porno movie house, the Guild Theatre. This last event finally aroused the San Diego police to drive the group underground.

Ammonium Nitrate Fertilizer: 1972
In late 1971 and the first half of 1972 the SAO put out bulletins on how to make booby traps, how to use ammonium nitrate in high explosives, and how to gain forced entry into buildings. (Much of this information was taken from Department of the Army technical manuals on "Unconventional Warfare Devices and Techniques.") The San Diego SAO also put out bulletins about local liberals, radicals and antiwar activists, all of whom were lumped together as communists. (These missives went out to a mailing list of two hundred twenty-seven names in the area, including a naval commander, a county supervisor, a vice admiral, a Marine Corps brigadier general, a rear admiral, and some San Diego police officers.) The group was organized into small, semi-autonomous cells. Members were listed by code numbers, and were given mall drops for their contacts.

After being arrested for incitement to riot, RFK had Walker briefly sent to a mental ward for an evaluation in September 1962 - but after reading the statement he made, I can't say I blame RFK. Walker was a nut and a fascist, racist crank.

They don't mention the mental issue on wiki, but it happened and Walker thought RFK did it to discredit him.

From wiki:



In 1959, General Walker was sent to Germany to command the 24th Infantry Division. In 1961, however, he became involved in controversy. Walker initiated an anti-communist indoctrination program for troops called "Pro Blue" (due to Free World troops being coloured blue on maps)[2] and was accused of distributing right-wing literature from the John Birch Society to the soldiers of his division. He was also quoted by a newspaper, the Overseas Weekly, as saying that Harry S. Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Dean Acheson were "definitely pink." Additionally, a number of soldiers had complained that Walker was instructing them as to whom to cast their votes for in the next election, with all of the candidates the General named being arch-conservative Republicans. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara relieved Walker of his command, while an inquiry was conducted, and in October Walker was reassigned to Hawaii to become assistant chief of staff for training and operations in the Pacific. Instead, Walker resigned from the Army on November 2, 1961. Said Walker: "It will be my purpose now, as a civilian, to attempt to do what I have found it no longer possible to do in uniform."[3]

In February 1962, Walker entered the race for Governor of Texas, but finished last among six candidates in a Democratic primary election that was won in a runoff election by John B. Connally, Jr. Other contenders were the sitting Governor Price Daniel, highway commissioner Marshall Formby of Plainview, Attorney General Will Wilson, and Houston lawyer Don Yarborough, the favorite of liberals and organized labor. After winning the nomination in a close vote over Yarborough, Connally defeated Republican Jack Cox, an oil equipment executive, also from Houston, who ran stronger than past nominees of his party.[4]

Walker organized protests in September 1962 against the use of federal troops to enforce the enrollment of African-American James Meredith at the racially segregated University of Mississippi. His public statement on September 29:

This is Edwin A. Walker. I am in Mississippi beside Gov. Ross Barnett. I call for a national protest against the conspiracy from within. Rally to the cause of freedom in righteous indignation, violent vocal protest, and bitter silence under the flag of Mississippi at the use of Federal troops. This today is a disgrace to the nation in 'dire peril,' a disgrace beyond the capacity of anyone except its enemies. This is the conspiracy of the crucifixion by anti-Christ conspirators of the Supreme Court in their denial of prayer and their betrayal of a nation.[5]

After a violent, 15-hour riot broke out on the campus, on September 30, in which two people were killed and six federal marshals were shot, Walker was arrested on four federal charges, including sedition and insurrection against the United States. Walker posted bond and returned home to Dallas, where he was greeted by a crowd of 200 supporters.[6] After a federal grand jury adjourned in January 1963 without indicting him, the charges were dropped. Because the dismissal of the charges was without prejudice, the charges could have been reinstated within five years

As promised earlier, the CIA links:

THE PLOT THICKENS: CIA, HOUGHTON, ANTI-CASTRO GUERILLAS, AND GUATEMALA

From Harry Jones, Jr.: "Troy had told me once that he had worked for the CIA
during a Guatemala uprising a few years earlier — a story I doubted at the time."
I don't doubt it.
This concerns the 1965 California District Attorney bust of the Erquiaga Arms Company, whose owner was in Guatemala, and charges that Houghton and the Minutemen were working with them. Nothing seems to have come of this. Why? Because the FBI was behind it. Here's the story:

The Independent, April 3, 1965

Valley Men Facing Illegal Gun Charge
County Issues Complaints

The joint operators of a City of Industry arms business formally were charged Friday with illegally possessing machine guns and other arms confiscated in a raid last week. Maurice Oppenlieim, deputy district attorney, issued complaints against Juan Erquiaga and Lowell Knudson, whom he identified as co-operators of the Erquiaga Arms Co., 15036 E
Proctor Ave.

Will Ask Warrants
Both are charged with one count each of possessing machine guns without a state permit and possession of silencers. The latter are "totally illegal' in California. Oppenlieim said he would take the complaints to Citrus Municipal Court where warrants could be issued for the arrest of the pair, or a date set for arraignment if they surrendcr voluntarily.
Federal, state and local investigators swooped down on the arms company last Friday and seized the machine guns and three silencers. Employees of the firm said at the time Erquiaga was in Guatemala.

Destination Unknown
Erquiaga was described as "strongly anti-Castro" and later was reported he was manufacturing the guns for shipment to Costa Rica for eventul
use by anti-Castro Cubans.

However, State Atty. General Thomas Lynch ordered the raid because he said he had information the guns were destined for "private armies in California."

Lynch said the U. S. State Department had refused an export license to Erquiaga, although Knudson said he was operating the arms factory with the approval of the State Department. The government of Costa Rica also denied another statement by Knudson he was making machine guns for Costa Rica, for possible use by anti-Castro Cubans.

Believed in Peru
Knudson, who owns a metal works firm in El Monte, said he would surrender in Citrus Municipal Court. He said Erquiaga presently was in Peru on a business trip and although he was expected to return to the United States, Knudson did not know when his partner would return.
Knudson described as "pure lies," Lynch's allegation the "guns were going to "private armies" such as the "Minutemen" and the "Rangers," two paramilitary groups in California.

The Daily Review, March 30, 1965

MACHINE GUNS: MANUFACTURER OF ARMS WAS WARNED

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ally.
Gen. Thomas C. Lynch says that an arms manufacturer from whose plant 373 machine guns were seized was warned four months ago that he was operating without a state license. Lynch disclosed the prior warning Monday as he conferred with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office as to what further action to take against the Erquiaga Arms Co., located in suburban industry.

The guns, 100,000 rounds of ammunition, three silencers and a rifle were seized Friday by state and local authorities armed with a warrant charging
thai the firm had no state permit for possession or sale of automatic weapons.

The firm does have a federal license for the manufacture of such weapons, Lynch said. Lynch alleged at the time of the raid that some of the weapons were destined for use by private armies of extremist organizalions. A spokesman for the firm denied this.
A spokesman for Lynch said the private armies referred to were—among others — the Minutemen and Rangers.

Lynch's reference lo "Rangers" brought a complaint from a legitimate veteran's organization- the Ranger Battalions Association of World War II.
"Our members have nothing to do with these so-called private armies and resent them using the name which only Rangers on active duty and veterans who served in Army Ranger units are authorized to use," said a statement issued by James Altieri, president of the association. Lynch said the Rangers to whom he was referring were a para-military group which cofined its activities mainly to California.

He said The Minutemen is a similar organization. Troy Haughton, western area coordinator for the Minutemen, issued a statement Monday, disavowing any connection with the Erquiaga Arms Co. and denying that his organization planned to purchase weapons.

Here's what I wrote months ago (apparently I did think that the FBI or CIA gave TH a new identity -- go figure?)

The inexplicable sequence of events:

1) March 30, 1965:
California Atty General says that Erquiaga Arms Co is operating without a state license. But Erquiaga, who is in Guatemala at the time, says that his firm has a Federal license and is working with the FBI regarding anti-Castro activities. The Calif. Atty General admits as much but accuses the Erquiaga of funnelling guns to the Minutemen; Houghton denies it.

Troy Houghton told Harry Jones once that he had worked for the CIA during a Guatemala uprising a few years earlier.
Seems like he was telling the truth.

2) May 1967
Troy disappears. The FBI are told that DePugh and his henchmen murdered him. They check out the story, even go to the alleged gravesite to dig up the body. None is found. Nonetheless, they seem to go along with the story that Houghton was murdered. Why would the Minutemen tell the FBI that they murdered someone? Why would they take FBI agents to a gravesite? It makes no sense.

3) July 23, 1968
12 Deer Lodge prisoners escape and wind up in the mountains between Butte and Deer Lodge. 11 are returned within a week. A woman is clubbed over the head and has her car, three high-powered rifles, and ammo stolen. The warden and law enforcement publically declare that this mystery man in the mountain CANNOT be one of the escapees.

4) November 17, 1968:
The FBI declares that they suspect two Minutemen are armed and in the wilderness of Montana.

The Independent Record, Nov. 17, 1968
Two Leaders of the Minutemen
May Be Hiding Out in Montana

The Federal Bureau of Investigation believes two leaders of the Minutemen, a secret, militant right-wing extremist group, may be hiding out in a Montana wilderness of backcountry area They are Robert Bolivar DePugh, the acknowledged leader of the Minutemen, and Walter Patrick Peyson, who is believed to be a high-ranking member of the organization. The fugituves are sought by the FBI on a charge of conspiracy to commit bank robbery.

Word that the FBI suspects DePugh and Peyson may be in Montana came in the monthly publication of the Montana Aeronautics commission, "Montana and the Sky." The publication said the FBI has asked Montana pilots and their passengers to be on the lookout for the men. It printed their pictures and descriptions. "Both men have been reported as 'having traveled in both Montana and Idaho," the FBI said. "They may seek air transportation, particularly to remote areas."
It warned that the fugitives "are considered armed and dangerous."
The report said a 17-year-old girl named Janet Stephanie Taylor may be with DePugh and Peyson. She is described as being 6 feet 1 inch tall.
DePugh, the report said, does not smoke and is not known to drink alcoholic beverages. When extremely nervous he coughs considerably. He usually wears business suits or conservative sports clothes and ordinarily stays in well known motels when traveling. He is an expert firearms shot. "DePugh is reported constanty guarded by other Minutemen
and in the past has been armed with pistols, rifles and land grenades," the MAC publication reported. "It has been said that he keeps his associates 'emotionally charged' and that they will assist him in resisting arrest.
It said Peyson reportedly carries a handgun and has access to other types of weapons including hand grenades. DePugh is 45, 5 feet 10 or 11, weighs 175-190 pounds, has a medium build, brown hair, brown eyes, medium complexion.

5) December 20, 1968
Zodiac murders Faraday and Jensen

6) July 4, 1969
Zodiac murders Ferrin and wounds Mageau

7) July 31, 1969
"The murderer" sends 3 letters signed with a crosshair symbol.
http://www.zodiackiller.com/ChronicleLetter2.html

Compare Z logo with Minutemen logo:






The FBI are well aware of the Minutemen and their logo but make NO public statement that this could be Minutemen-related, even though they believed that the Minutemen were armed and dangerous and in Montana six months earlier. THIS IS KEY AND INEXPLICABLE.

8. Sept. 27, 1969
Hartnell and Shepard are attacked. Hartnell says that the attacker claimed to be an escaped convict from Deer Lodge Prison. Still no connection to the Minutemen is made by the FBI even though they suspected the Minutemen of being in the mountains of Deer Lodge.

9) Oct. 11, 1969
Paul Stine is murdered. Several eyewitnesses produce a composite. The FBI suspect that Houghton has been murdered, so they say. But the gravesite was empty. The composite looks like Houghton and the descriptions of Z have all along fit Houghton.



It just doesn't add up. The FBI aren't nearly this stupid. One can only conculde that they had a very good idea who the Zodiac was or which group he was from but for some unknown reason did not publically or privately so far as we know declare what they suspected about the identity of the Zodiac Killer. Were they afraid that the Minutemen and particularly Houghton's connections to the FBI (COINTELPRO) and CIA would surface?
What did Houghton do for the FBI between May 1967 and July 1968?
Was the bargain that Houghton would do something for the FBI in exchange for a new identity? I very much think so.

Hi Rand....You said: "The FBI aren't nearly this stupid..."

I'm beginning to wonder about this now, I truly am...

To make matters worse, here are front pages of newspapers wth CJB murder and MM bust:





AND MM CROSSHAIR FOUND IN RIVERSIDE WHERE MM TRAIN

Here is another reason that the FBI should have connected the MM to Z:

8-11-1968

http://crca.ucsd.edu/~esisco/friendlyfire/A1972.html

Quote :

Much to the astonishment of the SAO supporters, the star witness against Yakopec turned out to be San Diego Commander Godfrey. Then a local fireman, Godfrey admitted he had worked for the FBI since early 1967 as an undercover agent. He did it, he said, because "I felt it was my duty to my country." Before accepting the role, he had talked it over with J. Clifford Wallace, then the State President of the Mormon Church for San Diego, and more recently a federal judge by appointment of Richard Nixon. Wallace put Godfrey in touch with the FBI, and he was assigned to agent Steve Christianson, to whom he reported verbally every day, Godfrey was to work on the militant right wing, and was paid two hundred fifty dollars per month by the FBI. At first he was assigned to the Minutemen and then with the demise of that group in San Diego, he helped start and run the SAO in November 1971. Godfrey testified that his FBI contacts knew all of his activities, including his stockpiling of illegal explosives in his house. This, he said, was done with their permission. (He later gave some of the explosives to Yakopec to "save them for after the Communist takeover of this country.")

AHHHH your timeline helps make it clear.

I have a weird question but not exactly sure how to ask it.

TH joined the MM in 1963 if my notes on your notes is correct.

BUT there is a document you posted (assume it is a FBI report..labeled MM-97-261) and clearly is indicating that there was a contact with someone in NY who got a call from TH in 1959 offering his groups services. It's the document that Betty, his wife, remarked that he was a Fuller Brush Man.

IS it possible that TH was actually undercover informant (FBI/CIA) who infiltrated the MM?? I know it sounds weird and highly unlikely he was actually AGAINST the MM. BUT...stranger things have happened and the above quote shows it did occur at least in the above instance. CLEARLY if the FBI had 1 informant that ACTUALLY helped set up new chapter of the SAO...then why NOT have TH from 1959 on your payroll and do the same thing?? IF that was the case...he did a pretty good job of it.

The links you post about the COINTELPRO...actually says that doing just that sort of thing was their goal. They used the MM for their purposes (allegedly) but, I submit, that in order to do that successfully they would probably want a person, way before the above example shows, within that organization that could report on what the MM were up to...but also perhaps push the MM into an agenda that was favorable to the FBI's COINTELPRO.

Now IF those things were true...and he went wacky and started the Z crimes...there is no way they (FBI/CIA) could allow the history to come out by letting him get caught in a traditional sense. MAYBE he learned his weapon skills from secret training from government organizations and NOT the MM.

Even IF TH was not the Z...this is fascinating evidence into some pretty dark stuff. What the younger members of the board probably can't not understand is the political context that this all occurs. The Z seemed to have several agendas...first he was a sick individual who murdered people and second he was thumbing his nose at LE and perhaps the third was to cause terror, unrest.

IF you liken it to our government hustling to catch up AFTER 9/11...then perhaps you can see how some government agencies cut some corners or was perhaps involved with the wrong sort of folks in order to protect their agenda back then all in the name of patriotism. We had assassinations, protests, and war going on and people were pissed. OH wait...that was then and this is now.

To clarify my above post/question...I mean is it possible he was an informant first and a MM second rather than becoming an informant AFTER he was charged as a MM in court around 1967 just before he "disappeared".

Could he have had the job to JOIN the MM (after a stint with the CIA in Guatemala), rise in rank, and his sole purpose was to be an informant and perhaps assassin?

Anything is possible with the MM. But TH was a dogmatic believer in the cause. He belonged or lead some right-wing organization in San Diego, but I don't know which one. When the MM formed, he already had a group that he attached to the MM. That's kind of how DePugh built the organization. Groups already formed glombed on to the national MM organization. At least, that's how I understand it. Some guy named William Colley, a free-lance photographer, also called himself the leader of the MM chapter in California. His group was called the Loyal Order of Mountain Men. In truth, though, it was a bunch of gay guys who wanted to claim that they were the legitimate MM chapter in CA just to undermine DePugh and the Minutemen group, which they did in 1961. Both Colley and Houghton were fighting over who was the real leader of the CA chapter; then both turned up in the newspapers with arrests for sexual deviance and indecent exposure.

Regarding Godfrey, read this:

"San Diego County Supervisor Admits 'Pranks' on Leftists," LA Times, Sept. 19, 1974 by Narda Z. Trout:

Excerpt:

The chairman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, who had previously denied allegations that he harassed leftists here, has now admitted 'some pranks.'

[skipping down to the interesting part of the story from our perspective]

He [Supervisor Lou Conde] denied being a Minutemen member, although he said he was friends with its then recognized West Coast leader, Troy Houghton, and Houghton's wife, Bettie, and at one time gave Houghton a military field radio from his marine surplus store.

[Skipping down the article]

Conde told CalPIRG and the Times that in 1967 he and an 'acquaintance,' Howard Berry Godfrey [an FBI informant, as it turns out] met at Mrs. Houghton's home and decided to go to the open house held by the Peace and Freedom Party.....Conde said he and Godfrey had a mutual interest in conservatism and the trip to theparty was not planned. 'We wanted to see what their activity was, what kind of draw they were getting and so
on,' he said.

They went to the party and later went out back of the headquarters and pulled the electric meter light switches, causing the lights to go out, Conde said.

A bomb threat was later phoned to the headquarters, and Conde said he knew nothing about it, although Godfrey said Conde made the call.

Conde said he also conceived a plot to hang Marxist Professor Marcuse in effigy on the University of California, San Diego campus "from the same flagpole where the students had hung Reagan a week previously."
He said he bought an old suit at the Salvation Army and "because Bettie Houghton is such a good artist, I had her draw a face and make a sign, 'Marxist Marcuse.'"

[Skipping down]

Godfrey said he and Conde "were assigned" to disrupt the Peace and Freedom Party open house by Mrs. Houghton, who Godfrey said took the reins of the Minutemen after her husband disappeared.
He said after the lights went out, the pair went down the street to a phone booth "and Conde called (the headquarters) and said something like "at 11:30 the lights go out, at 11:40 the bomb goes off."

Some other interesting characters. Note Everett Moore's background as a scientist/engineer and that he lived in Paradise Valley.




Another photo of Moore



Interesting that this story and picture of Moore appeared on the same page as a story about a slain cab driver:

|

Here's another interesting character: MM Chaplain Robert Leroy. Harry Jones, Jr. told me this guy was nuts.

LEROY 1965


LEROY 1966 with Houghton (left) and DePugh (center)



LEROY 1980



LEROY, ROBERT (1923- )
PAPERS, 1963-1996
5 FOLDERS (ONE CASSETTE TAPE, FOUR PHOTOGRAPHS)

WESTERN HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPT COLLECTION
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS




The Reverend Bob LeRoy donated his papers to the Western Historical Manuscript Collection on February 14, 1997.

Reverend LeRoy was born in Ellensburg, Washington in 1923. He grew up in the Tacoma region and as a young adult became involved with radical right-wing, populist religious and political groups, including those of the Presbyterian radio evangelist Dr. Carl McIntire and St. Louisan Gerald L. K. Smith. LeRoy began military service in 1943, serving as a paratrooper in the South Pacific until 1946. He documented his World War II experiences in a book, From My Foxhole To Tokyo, which he published in 1992.

After he returned, LeRoy studied at Pacific Lutheran College in Tacoma and found work as a public school teacher. He was dismissed after complaining to a superintendent that he felt a fellow teacher was a Communist. LeRoy also dropped out of his membership in the American Legion and the VFW because he felt those groups were soft on communism. In 1962, he joined a group in Norcross, Missouri called the Minutemen. After losing a teaching job in Nebraska in 1965 because of his political views, LeRoy became the chaplain of the Minutemen and traveled nationally as a speaker for it. The Warren Commission investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy at one time placed into evidence two exhibits suggesting a link between the assassination and the Minutemen, but later withdrew them. From 1965 to 1968 LeRoy met with members of the FBI and answered questions about possible Minutemen involvement in gun-running operations.

Because of his convictions as a Baptist evangelist, LeRoy eventually split with Minutemen founder Robert DePugh and formed the Christian Sons of Liberty in Liberty, Missouri in 1970. He organized anti-Communist protest rallies and became known as the "parachuting preacher" because of his paratrooper background. In 1980 he moved the headquarters of the Christian Sons of Liberty to New Jersey and then to Langley, Washington in 1981, where he continued to be active in anti-Communist and right-wing populist causes.

SCOPE AND CONTENT
The LeRoy papers include correspondence describing his involvement with the Minutemen, the group's factional organization and some of its members; newsletters published by LeRoy from 1963; a copy of his 1992 memoir, From My Foxhole To Tokyo; a radio interview conducted with LeRoy when he worked as chaplain for the Minutemen in 1966; and photographs, 1943-1990.

FOLDER LISTING
1. Correspondence, 1995-1996
2. Newsletters, 1963-1995
3. From My Foxhole To Tokyo by Trooper Bob LeRoy, 1992
4. T579.1, Radio Interview with Minuteman Chaplain, 1966
5. Photographs 579.1-4, 1943-1990

579.1 Pfc. Bob LeRoy, Hg. Co. - 3rd Bn.- 511th Para. Inf. Reg.- 11th Airbourne Division -
U. S. Army, 1943-1946

579.2 "Minuteman Chaplain", Rev. Bob LeRoy, 1965 to 1970

579.3 Rev. Bob LeRoy and family, Kansas City, MO, 1980

579.4 Rev. Bob LeRoy, 1990

INDEX

Anti-Communism
LeRoy, Reverend Robert
Kennedy, John F. (assassinations)
Minutemen
Norcross, MO
Militia Movement

WESTERN HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPT COLLECTION
222 THOMAS JEFFERSON LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS
8001 NATURAL BRIDGE ROAD
ST. LOUIS, MO 63121

(314) 516-5143
fax: (314) 516-5853

whmc@umsl.edu