The excerpt below is from an FBI polygraph given to Michael Vejvoda, a Minuteman and a very dangerous one, in June 1968 regarding the RFK assassination. Notice that Vejvoda had been to "Mrs. Houghton's home" to discuss Minutemen activities, e.g., picketing the Moscow circus.
Here's the link to the page in the FBI doc:
http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=99851&relPageId=9 Here is more evidence that Bettie was still very much involved with MM activities after Troy's disappearance. In fact, one of the people in the story claims that she ran the West Coast operations in his absence:
"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. [Zodiac's wingwalker boots were alleged
to be from a army/marine surplus store; also, Zodiac's MO, "This is the
Zodiac Speaking," sounds like a shortwave radio operator]
[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."
Here are some MM-Zodiac comparisons from the above story: 1) Z made bomb threats (they made a bomb threat)
2) phoned police after murders (they phone a bomb threat)
3) wore wingwalker boots, likely purchased from a military surplus store (Houghton purchased a field radio from a marine surplus store)
4) his MO was "This is the Zodiac Speaking" -- like a shortwave radio operator might introduce him/herself
5) Bettie was an artist who helped the cause and wasn't an innocent (she might have worked on some of Z's letters)
Also, consider that The Minutemen organization was a political action group. Does this explain why Z kept urging people to wear his buttons with the crosshair symbol on it (which was the Minutemen logo)? There's a sense that Z wants to make a political statement in some twisted way with the Z buttons. "They (the leftists) have their peace buttons, we rightists should have ours." And that's the way this Narda Trout article ends:
"He [Conde] called the activities pranks and said he did not think they were serious when, "Looking back at the period of time...the other camp...the ultra-liberals, they were blowing up campuses, they were killing people, they were setting fires to school buildings."
BACK TO BETTIESo if Bettie believed in August 1967 (the date of the letter to Harry Jones that I posted) that DePugh was behind Houghton's "disappearance" and if she believed what she said in the newspaper articles in June 1968, why is she entertaining Minutemen and discussing operations with them? It makes little sense. Here's her story in 1968:
MINUTEMEN AIDE MISSING, WIFE ASSERTS Exclusive to the
LA Times, April 23, 1968 San Diego -- Troy Haughton, 35, Western coordinator for the "Minutemen," has been missing for 11 months and may have met with foul play, his wife said here Monday.
Mrs. Betty Haughton, mother of three sons, 5, 6 and 12, said she last heard from her husband on May 21, 1967, when he telephoned from Independence, Mo., that he was leaving for home in a new car.
Since then, through her efforts and those of friends, the newly purchased auto has been found in the Midwest (she did not say where) but no trace of Haughton has been uncovered.
When I spoke with Bettie a few weeks ago, she said she didn't remember anything about a car found on the side of the road, and she didn't know if TH bought a new car.
Here's what I don't understand. Why did Bettie write to Harry that she didn't know what kind of car he was driving and that she had been given conflicting stories that seemed deliberately conflicting? If the last thing that Houghton phoned about was to tell her he had bought a new car, wouldn't you have expected him to tell her what kind of car? Wouldn't she have mentioned in her letter in August 1967, that Houghton had bought a new car? Why in the news story does it say that she located the car in the Midwest but "(she did not say where)"? If you're trying to find your husband, wouldn't this be information you would want the public to know?
Home 
Tue Apr 06, 2010 12:52 am
Will do.
