Government Assassination - the Austin connection

[theaustinescorts]

In 1951 a young UT professor, Malcolm Wallace, calmly entered the pro shop of a miniature golf course on South Lamar and blew away it's owner with a revolver. In front of several witnesses he got into his station wagon and drove away. Malcolm Wallace was well known. In addition to being a professor in the Economics Department, he had also been the President of his Class during the war. Shortly thereafter he was placed under arrest and indicted for murder, but wealthy friends bailed him out and found him legal counsel. The front page of the Daily Texan featured his news conference to explain his side of things. During the trial, the many witnesses guaranteed that he would be found guilty. Eleven of the twelve jurors went for the death penalty, but a single holdout juror insisted on acquittal. The result was a jury compromise. Malcolm Wallace was convicted, but the jury sentenced him to only 5 years, and the Judge suspended the sentence. Malcolm Wallace walked out of the Travis County Courthouse that day a free man.

In Travis county in those days it was not uncommon for well-connected people to get away with murder. In the coming years Malcolm Wallace was also implicated in several other homicides in Texas, all murder-for-hire. Wallace, the former UT Class President and Economics Professor, moonlighted on the side as a professional killer.

Within the government in the 1950s and 1960s there were two different kinds of assassination - "negative" and "positive."

"Negative" assassination involved the elimination of people who were spying on us. This could be the killing of enemy spies sent over to recruit people within our own ranks to spy on us, or to organize fronts or covert programs directed against us. It also involved the elimination of those within our own ranks, our government employees or agents, who had agreed to spy for our enemies. This kind of assassination is common in intelligence. Every counter-intelligence sector of every intelligence service possesses an assassination team. One reason why this is the case is because such assassinations are not destablizing. Killing people spying on you is the traditional manner of dealing with the problem since time immemorial, and such actions do not cause escalation of tensions or prompt acts of war between belligerants.

In the US however this situation was complicated by the role of the FBI in counter-intelligence. By law the FBI was the sole agency permitted to conduct counter-intelligence within the US, and it's mission was enforcement of espionage laws. As a law enforcement agency the FBI was not constituted to secretly investigate and dispose of spies. Therefore the CIA function to do so was severely limited when operating in the US.

Outside of the US however CIA counter-intelligence was free to conduct secret assassinations against spies, and did so from time to time. This function was controlled by the Chief of Counter-Intelligence in the 1950s and 1960s, James Angleton. Angleton was an American who grew up in Facist Italy in the 1930s. He and his father were both Facist sympathizers and therefore anti-communist. His inclinations and methods of fighting communism were influenced by the Facist methods he grew up with. After the war he was the US counter-intelligence Chief in Italy, and worked with the mafia and fellow Facists to kill communist agents sent over from Russia to take over Italy through the ballot box. The Russians spent a fortune seeking to bring into power the Italian Communist Party in the elections of 1948. However due to the effective counter-intelligence operations of Angleton and others [including assassination of communist agents] the Russians failed in the elections.

Angleton conducted many counter-intelligence assassinations, largely through military personnel who were brought into the CIA. Program Branch 7 was one of several such units. In Italy in the 1950s the principal CIA officer conducting assassinations in PB-7 was Air Force Lt. Col. David H. Strier. After his retirement from government in 1967 Strier, who was diagnosed with a brain injury which made him incapable of controlling his violent impusles, was forced into a government monitoring program where he was required to live in Austin, where a local psychiatrist was contracted to monitor him. This psychiatrist was a local forensic psychiatrist who specialized in forecasting if someone was likely to be violent in the future. Austin came to be chosen as one of several locations for this program because of the friendship between Angleton and former National Security Advisor Walt Rostow, who taught at the Johnson School of Public Affairs. Rostow and Angleton were close friends in Washington in the 1940s, and were OSS/CIA colleagues. In the 1970s when the CIA ended assassinations, Angleton set up several covert locations to settle and monitor officers who had participated such activities. In Austin Angleton relied on Rostow to oversee the program here. These programs dovetailed with other monitoring programs operated by the Defense Department for their own former personnel who had performed assassinations in wartime situations such as in Vietnam or Korea.

In 1975 when Congress became aware of CIA-conducted assassination "attempts," Angleton left the CIA under a cover story that he had been fired for conducting destructive mole-hunting witch hunts damaging to the Agency. In reality though he never left the network of CIA figures, including Rostow, who were involved in this kind of work.

The other form of assassination, or "positive" assassination, has to do with killing foreign leaders or agents in efforts to influence their governments by means of covert action. Unlike assassination for counter-intelligence purposes, this form of assassination is highly destablizing because of the risk of retaliation by the target government, or other governments. Once national leaders start killing each other to further their policies, there is no way to limit it. Doing so are acts of war, and can easily escalate into a situation where no one benefits. At various times however both the US and Russia used this kind of assassination as well, but did so in much more covert and highly-deniable ways.

[Smokin Joe]

Gotta tell ya. i totally missed the connection between Malcom Wallace and positive or negative assasinations. Was the owner of the miniture golf course a spy or somethimg?

[Billy_Saul]

Originally Posted by Smokin Joe

Gotta tell ya. i totally missed the connection between Malcom Wallace and positive or negative assasinations. Was the owner of the miniture golf course a spy or somethimg?

No, it's really a story about LBJ.and friends like Billy Sol Estes.

[NorthWood]

Miniature golf is boring.

[theaustinescorts]

Government assassination and criminal murder are closely linked. They both rely on corruption in particular jurisdictions, and are often conducted by the same individuals. In the case of David Strier, he worked for the mafia in New York before he joined the Army in 1942. When he killed for the government sometimes he would lure the target to New York because he could kill there with no legal consequences, owing to his mafia connections. One such case may have been the murder of Army scientist Frank Olson in 1953, in which Strier said he had been involved. In the Olson case false information was documented by the MEs office masking Olson's injuries which otherwise might have led to a criminal investigation at the time. When the 1953 ME report was exposed as false in 1994, the New York DAs office opened a homicide investigation. That investigation led directly to Strier. Owing to the problem with the FBI in counter-intelligence in the US, assassination was often chosen as a first remedy in the early days.

A strong case can be made that Malcolm Wallace killed on several occassions at the behest of Lyndon Johnson. Lyndon Johnson became President after the killing of John Kennedy, and after Johnson was driven from office he brought Walt Rostow to Austin with him. Rostow was the reason why retired government assassins were settled here for monitoring.

The present war on terror has created a whole new generation of government assassins. In the future we will see what mental health problems they encounter, and what happens to them.

[ThrillBill88]

Originally Posted by theaustinescorts

The present war on terror has created a whole new generation of government assassins.

Thank God. You can't kill those low life, woman stoning, mass murdering, mother fuckers fast enough. Give the new generation of assasins a medal, a pension, a trip to Cabo, and therapy if necessary. That's one thing I would definitely pay more taxes for.

[theaustinescorts]

Originally Posted by ThrillBill88

Thank God. You can't kill those low life, woman stoning, mass murdering, mother fuckers fast enough. Give the new generation of assasins a medal, a pension, a trip to Cabo, and therapy if necessary. That's one thing I would definitely pay more taxes for.

I wish it were that easy. People trained to kill for reasons of policy are duely motivated when they are young and dumb. But when they gain a little maturity they learn that war is full of ambiguities - it is not a melodrama of right verus wrong. They always grow to regret deeply what they've done, and bitterly blame the institutions who talked them into doing it. In the end they always suffer. Alienation from friends is family is a given, and suicide is not uncommon.

When I did government work the psychiatrist in Austin who monitored Strier and the others told me,

"These are people who were not raised to do the things they were made to do. Unless they are sociopaths it's going to effect them badly."

We are each the keepers of our own souls.

[gnadfly]

Again, I wish you'd post some type of link for your fantasies TAE. I only read the first 3 paras. You expect me to believe a top student/econ prof is a hit man....OK. So if the guy is that smart why kill someone in broad daylight with witnesses? Kinda sophomoric.

[theaustinescorts]

Just google his name, or research the Statesmen archives if you like. He was convicted of the homicide and his sentence concluded under highly suspicious circumstances which were documented and widely reported at the time. Similarly there were numerous other serious crimes which had similar outcomes in that era. If you know anyone who was involved in law in Austin in those times they should be able to inform you.

Additionally, if you are implying that only uneducated, desperate people are killers then you should familiarize yourself with the topic at little more.

btw in case you haven't noticed I tend to post content which I believe runs counter to prevailing opinion. However, I post only on topics in areas in which I have some personal experience, or formal education. What would be the point in posting content that most people already agree with? That would be boring.

[Codybeast]

Originally Posted by theaustinescorts

Just google his name, or research the Statesmen archives if you like. He was convicted of the homicide and his sentence concluded under highly suspicious circumstances which were documented and widely reported at the time. Similarly there were numerous other serious crimes which had similar outcomes in that era. If you know anyone who was involved in law in Austin in those times they should be able to inform you.

Additionally, if you are implying that only uneducated, desperate people are killers then you should familiarize yourself with the topic at little more.

btw in case you haven't noticed I tend to post content which I believe runs counter to prevailing opinion. However, I post only on topics in areas in which I have some personal experience, or formal education. What would be the point in posting content that most people already agree with? That would be boring.

I believe Gnadfly's point was if you're going to go through all the effort to post this extensive a thread then why wouldn't you simply provide a simple link to support the info? Seems pretty logical to me especially considering it is Your story and so easy to substantiate.

To go through all that effort and then tell those willing to take the time to actually read it to go out and do their own research to substantiate your story doesn't make any sense.

Are you making a point or giving out homework assignments?

[averageTxJoe]

It appears TAE is attempting to get people to do their own research and make their own opinions. Nothing wrong with that in my book. People in this country are too lazy and do not think for themselves. That will always lead to the downfall of a society.

Interesting topic to say the least.

[Codybeast]

Originally Posted by averageTxJoe

It appears TAE is attempting to get people to do their own research and make their own opinions. Nothing wrong with that in my book. People in this country are too lazy and do not think for themselves. That will always lead to the downfall of a society.

Interesting topic to say the least.

So this is a college classroom rather than a chat forum.
Common sense would imply that a simple link to show the basis for the entire thread is way more than reasonable. It's only unreasonable if the OP is either too lazy to show the source of his claims or if it is BS to begin with.

I hardly think that backing up claims with a source is preventing anyone from doing their own research if there is any initial solid basis to go on. Personally I am too lazy to research topics that don't relate to my busy life just to see if there is any legitimacy to the comments.

I have far better things to do with my time. If the topic is interesting (Which it is) then a link would provide credibility and Then a spark might ignite further investigation. Nothing wrong with that in my book.

[Billy_Saul]

Originally Posted by ThrillBill88

Thank God. You can't kill those low life, woman stoning, mass murdering, mother fuckers fast enough. Give the new generation of assasins a medal, a pension, a trip to Cabo, and therapy if necessary. That's one thing I would definitely pay more taxes for.

Speaking of which, a couple of well placed cruise missiles on Qaddafi's tent might go a long way right now. If OBama had any balls he would give Qaddafi an ultimatum of one hour to release those four NY Times reporters then start the fireworks. We can take out the Libyan navy and contribute the initial tomahawks. Then turn it over to the Europeans to do the no fly zone. Concise, effective, gone.

Obama is spectator in Chief. Heaven forbid that he lead, or even make a decision. Weak.

[Yssup Rider]

Well i havent been the greatest fan of many of the POTUS's decisions but I think it would be extraordinarly counterproductive to continue unilaterally sticking our noses, assets and resources into chit that just isn't our business. Let's see, Italy is a one-hour flight from Libya. Spain and Turkey 2 hours ... commercial. Fuck gaddafi and fuck them. They want help, I say show us the head of Momar. Until then, go deal with your own bullshit.

After all, we've got providers NSNCing members of the board. HIT!

[averageTxJoe]

I'm curious as to why more (mass) killing is an appropriate response. Isn't this what we should be trying to prevent?

Originally Posted by Billy_Saul

Speaking of which, a couple of well placed cruise missiles on Qaddafi's tent might go a long way right now. If OBama had any balls he would give Qaddafi an ultimatum of one hour to release those four NY Times reporters then start the fireworks. We can take out the Libyan navy and contribute the initial tomahawks. Then turn it over to the Europeans to do the no fly zone. Concise, effective, gone.

Obama is spectator in Chief. Heaven forbid that he lead, or even make a decision. Weak.