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COMMENT: Numer­ous pro­grams and arti­cles on this web­site have dealt with Nazi involve­ment with the assas­si­na­tion of JFK, from para­mil­i­tary Amer­i­can Nazi ele­ments to indi­vid­u­als and insti­tu­tions over­lap­ping the Rein­hard Gehlen spy milieu.

In the most recent Food For Thought posts, we excerpt­ed a recent, mas­sive vol­ume Gen­er­al Walk­er and the Mur­der of Pres­i­dent Kennedy by Jef­frey H. Cau­field M.D.

NB: For a sea­soned researcher, this is a use­ful and impor­tant book, how­ev­er it MUST be handicapped–the author is dis­mis­sive of the [by now record­ed fact] that ele­ments of the intel­li­gence com­mu­ni­ty were involved in the killing. Of course, they were.

Notwith­stand­ing that sig­nif­i­cant flaw, the book fea­tures a trea­sure trove of infor­ma­tion about Nazi and fas­cist con­nec­tions to the assas­si­na­tion of JFK. A vet­er­an researcher can–and should–easily take the infor­ma­tion from Cau­field­’s book and col­late it with the intel­li­gence com­mu­ni­ty ele­ments with which the “rad­i­cal right” indi­vid­u­als and insti­tu­tions are affil­i­at­ed.

Although not coter­mi­nous by any means, what Cau­field terms “the rad­i­cal right” and U.S. intel­li­gence are pro­found­ly con­nect­ed.

In FTR #188, we detailed the “Hate Bus,” a gam­bit by Amer­i­can Nazi Par­ty leader George Lin­coln Rock­well to protest the Free­dom Rid­ers and the Civ­il Rights move­ment.

In this post, we high­light aspects of the career of “Hate Bus” par­tic­i­pant Ray Lea­hart, a New Orleans ANP [Amer­i­can Nazi Par­ty] mem­ber: 

• Lea­hart was alleged to have been an asso­ciate of Lee Har­vey Oswald. ” . . . . On Decem­ber 16, 1963, after the Kennedy assas­si­na­tion, the New Orleans FBI inves­ti­gat­ed a tip that Lee Har­vey Oswald had been seen with Ray Lea­hart dur­ing the pre­vi­ous sum­mer. Lea­hart was a New Orleans Nazi whom [Guy] Ban­is­ter had bailed out of jail in the Hate Bus inci­dent. . . .”
• The FBI had no doc­u­ments on Lea­hart, rais­ing the ques­tion of what hap­pened to a doc­u­ment about Lea­hart’s arrest in the “Hate Bus” inci­dent. (For more about the Hate Bus, see FTR #188.) Author Cau­field spec­u­lates that Oswald han­dler Guy Ban­is­ter’s close rela­tion­ship with FBI SAC Reg­is Kennedy may have had some­thing to do with the dis­ap­pear­ance of Lea­hart’s arrest record. ” . . . . No FBI doc­u­ments, oth­er than the New Orleans police mug shots from the Hate Bus arrest, were in the FBI record rais­es the ques­tion of what hap­pened to FBI ref­er­ence 841767D (Lea­hart’s arrest record in the Hate Bus inci­dent) and why it did not accom­pa­ny the alle­ga­tion and sub­stan­tial like­li­hood of an Oswald-Lea­hart asso­ci­a­tion when sent to the War­ren Com­mis­sion. Ban­is­ter’s close friend­ship with New Orleans FBI SAC Reg­is Kennedy may have had some­thing to do with the crit­i­cal omis­sion. . . .”
• Lea­hart was close to Dal­las, Texas, ANP mem­bers, includ­ing Robert Sur­rey, who print­ed a noto­ri­ous poster of JFK: ” . . . . . . . The Dal­las FBI office was aware of cor­re­spon­dence link­ing Lea­hart to ANP [Amer­i­can Nazi Par­ty] activ­i­ties in Texas. One Dal­las ANP mem­ber, Robert Sur­rey, was a close asso­ciate of Gen­er­al [Edwin] Walk­er. Sur­rey’s wife Mary was Walk­er’s per­son­al sec­re­tary. Wealthy oil­men report­ed­ly fund­ed Sur­rey’s Nazi out­fit. Sur­rey print­ed the infa­mous ‘Want­ed for Trea­son’ poster which had cir­cu­lat­ed in Dal­las before the asso­ci­a­tion. The poster pic­tured mug-shot-styled pho­tos of Pres­i­dent Kennedy and accused him of trea­son. Sur­rey and Walk­er were War­ren Com­mis­sion wit­ness­es, and, of course, Walk­er was close to both Guy Ban­is­ter and Kent Court­ney. . . .”
• Lea­hart was an asso­ciate of David Duke, and was best man at Duke’s wed­ding. ” . . . . On Sep­tem­ber 9, 1972, Lea­hart became the best man at Duke’s wed­ding. . . .”
  

Gen­er­al Walk­er and the Mur­der of Pres­i­dent Kennedy by Jef­frey H. Cau­field, M.D.; More­land Press [HC]; Copy­right 2015 Jef­frey H. Cau­field; ISBN-13: 978–0‑9915637–0‑8; pp. 79–82.

. . . . On Decem­ber 16, 1963, after the Kennedy assas­si­na­tion, the New Orleans FBI inves­ti­gat­ed a tip that Lee Har­vey Oswald had been seen with Ray Lea­hart dur­ing the pre­vi­ous sum­mer. Lea­hart was a New Orleans Nazi whom [Guy] Ban­is­ter had bailed out of jail in the Hate Bus inci­dent. The report is pre­sent­ed here for the first time:

MUNCY PERKINS: Clerk Car­rolton Avenue Sta­tion, New Orleans Pub­lic Ser­vice, Inc., res­i­dence address 5320 Camp Street, New Orleans advised that occa­sion­al­ly indi­vid­u­als have been observed by him at the Car­rolton Avenue Sta­tion in the ear­ly morn­ing hours wait­ing for RAY JAMES LEAHART, one of the bus dri­vers. MR. PERKINS thought that pos­si­bly LEE HARVEY OSWALD may have been among those per­sons wait­ing for LEAHART. . . .

. . . . No FBI doc­u­ments, oth­er than the New Orleans police mug shots from the Hate Bus arrest, were in the FBI record rais­es the ques­tion of what hap­pened to FBI ref­er­ence 841767D (Lea­hart’s arrest record in the Hate Bus inci­dent) and why it did not accom­pa­ny the alle­ga­tion and sub­stan­tial like­li­hood of an Oswald-Lea­hart asso­ci­a­tion when sent to the War­ren Com­mis­sion. Ban­is­ter’s close friend­ship with New Orleans FBI SAC Reg­is Kennedy may have had some­thing to do with the crit­i­cal omis­sion.

Gar­rison’s inves­ti­ga­tors were aware of Lea­hart, but not of the alle­ga­tion that he was seen with Lee Har­vey Oswald. They had infor­ma­tion that Ray Lea­hart, a city street­car or bus dri­ver, past­ed ANP [Amer­i­can Nazi Par­ty] slo­gans and posters on the walls of the Mag­a­zine Street bus depot where he worked. Inves­ti­ga­tors were aware that Lea­hart had been to the train­ing cap across Lake Pontchar­train with Derek Frier who was a couri­er for the Nazi Par­ty (sev­er­al alle­ga­tions that Oswald had been to the camp were not­ed in Chap­ters One and Two), and that Frier’s friend Loren But­ler was a high-rank­ing offi­cial in the Nazi Par­ty.

Accord­ing to FBI doc­u­ments, Ray Lea­hart and Blu­ford Bal­ter were orga­niz­ers of the New Orleans Amer­i­can Nazi Par­ty. Lea­hart per­son­al­ly knew George Lin­coln Rock­well and had at least twelve per­son­al dis­cus­sions with Rockwell—and even vis­it­ed him on one occa­sion in Vir­ginia. Rock­well also met with Lea­hart, the head of the New Orleans Nation­al States’ Rights Par­ty, in New Orleans, in New Orleans in Sep­tem­ber 1964. In 1961, a “Spe­cial New Orleans Edi­tion” of the NSRP news­pa­per The Thun­der­bolt was issued with the front page head­line, “[LEANDER] PEREZ TURNS SPOTLIGHT ON THE ENEMY,” and appeared with a sto­ry writ­ten by Ray James Lea­hart above a large pho­to­graph of Lean­der Perez, Ban­is­ter’s close friend. . . . Guy Ban­is­ter sub­scribed to  The Thun­der­bolt. . . .

. . . . The Dal­las FBI office was aware of cor­re­spon­dence link­ing Lea­hart to ANP [Amer­i­can Nazi Par­ty] activ­i­ties in Texas. One Dal­las ANP mem­ber, Robert Sur­rey, was a close asso­ciate of Gen­er­al [Edwin] Walk­er. Sur­rey’s wife Mary was Walk­er’s per­son­al sec­re­tary. Wealthy oil­men report­ed­ly fund­ed Sur­rey’s Nazi out­fit. Sur­rey print­ed the infa­mous “Want­ed for Trea­son” poster which had cir­cu­lat­ed in Dal­las before the asso­ci­a­tion. The poster pic­tured mug-shot-styled pho­tos of Pres­i­dent Kennedy and accused him of trea­son. Sur­rey and Walk­er were War­ren Com­mis­sion wit­ness­es, and, of course, Walk­er was close to both Guy Ban­is­ter and Kent Court­ney. . . .

 . . . . In the 1970s, Lea­hart became a lead­ing mem­ber in the Nation­al Social­ist White Peo­ple’s Party—a recon­fig­ured ANP and Ku Klux Klan outfit—along with David Duke, per­haps the best-known white suprema­cist in Amer­i­ca in the 21^st cen­tu­ry, Lea­hart ped­dled his pro­pa­gan­da along with Duke in what was known as a “Free Speech Ral­ly” at Louisiana State Uni­ver­si­ty in Baton Rouge. On Sep­tem­ber 9, 1972, Lea­hart became the best man at Duke’s wed­ding. . . .