Walking tour stop #4: You guys, I think we’ve been hacked (in a good way!)

Let’s see…so far, we’ve been discussing the FBI’s Security Index, the notorious list of so-called dangerous people whose rolls included Ronald Tammen and Richard Cox, but curiously enough, excluded Lee Harvey Oswald, at least at the time of President Kennedy’s assassination, even though they knew all about his activities with Cuba and the Soviet Union. We also were able to guesstimate that someone from the FBI had written “see index” on the front page of Ron’s missing person documents in or around 1973, since it was written in the same handwriting, and therefore by the same person, as the same phrase that appears on a document from July 30, 1973. We didn’t discuss the content of the July 30 document…just the “see index” part and its date.

So let’s briefly discuss the content of the July 30, 1973, document.

In the “from” line is “Director, FBI,” who by then was Clarence Kelley. The person in the “to” line was the SAC (i.e., special agent in charge) of the FBI’s Las Vegas Field Office, who was Vern Loetterle. The subject is lengthy and in all caps: ALLEGED PLANNED BURGLARY OF THE OFFICE OF HENRY GREENSPUN, A LAS VEGAS PUBLISHER, IN EARLY 1972 (INTELLIGENCE DIVISION).

There’s quite a bit to unpack here at some point, but let’s not do that now. Let’s simply start by saying that Clarence had gotten Greenspun’s first name wrong. It was actually Herman, but everyone called him Hank. Hank Greenspun owned the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, and he used its editorial page like a weapon to wield his power and advance his political views, which evidently is a practice that hasn’t changed at all, especially since social media has entered our lives. (Hi, Elon! Hey, Zuck!) 

Here’s the story in a nutshell, which I’ve gleaned from several FBI reports on this topic: In early 1972, E. Howard Hunt—yes, THAT Howard Hunt—approached a security guy employed by Howard Hughes’ Tool Company—yes, THAT Howard Hughes—and told him about a robbery that he and his friends were planning to pull off. What friends, you ask? Oh, just G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord, both of Watergate fame, to name two. There were likely others involved as well. The reason for the robbery was to steal some documents that were in Greenspun’s safe that Hunt said could be used against Edmund Muskie, should he become the Democrat’s nominee for president. Hunt told the security guy, named Ralph Winte, that it was his understanding that Hughes could benefit nicely from the burglary as well. As they were rifling for the Muskie documents, the burglars would take the documents benefiting Hughes and hand them over to Winte, who could get them to Hughes. The only thing they were asking for in return was to have one of Hughes’ planes sitting at the ready to fly the burglars to a Central American country of their choosing. 

Here’s my favorite part of the story: when Winte asked Hunt what would happen if they got caught, Hunt’s response was “We’ll shoot them.”

I know. Wild, right?? Winte asked his immediate boss, William Gay, what he thought about the plan, and his boss ethically replied, “Not just no, hell no!” or something along those lines. So ostensibly the crime was never committed.

But here’s what I want to show you today: the July 30, 1973, document in its entirety. Look at the righthand side, in the white space near the first sentence: it says “Hac,” just like the ones on Ron’s missing person documents. (The letters “ac” are concealed by the letters JFK, which are written over them.)

Ron’s Hacs vary somewhat from page to page and may be written by two different people—I’m not entirely sure. However, here’s one version that in my view closely matches the July 30 document. 

Let’s do a couple more! Here’s a Hac from Hank Greenspun:

And here’s a similar Hac from Ron’s missing person docs:

Therefore, the announcement for today is: 

I think the same person(s) who wrote Hac on Ron’s missing person records wrote Hac on the Herman Greenspun burglary documents. What’s more, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I think the two cases may be related in some way.

Coming next: What the phuh do all these ph’s mean?