Conversations With the Crow Page 2

  Robert T. Crowley: Once the deputy director of Clandestine Operations and head of the group that interacted with corporate America. A former West Point football player who was one of the founders of the original CIA. Crowley was involved at a very high level with many of the machinations of the CIA.

  Gregory Douglas: A retired newspaperman, onetime friend of Heinrich Müller and latterly, of Robert Crowley. Inherited stacks of files from the former (along with many interesting works of art acquired during the war and even more papers from Robert Crowley. Lives comfortably in a nice house overlooking the Mediterranean.

  Reinhard Gehlen: A retired German general who had once been in charge of the intelligence for the German high command on Russian military activities. Fired by Hitler for incompetence, he was therefore naturally hired first by the U.S. Army and then, as his level of incompetence rose, with the CIA. His Nazi-stuffed organization eventually became the current German Bundes Nachrichten Dienst.

  Thomas K. Kimmel, Jr: A grandson of Admiral Husband Kimmel, Naval commander at Pearl Harbor who was scapegoated after the Japanese attack. Kimmel was a senior FBI official who knew both Gregory Douglas and Robert Crowley and made a number of attempts to discourage Crowley from talking with Douglas. He was singularly unsuccessful. Kimmel subsequently retired and lives in retirement in Virginia. Mr. Kimmel was subsequently employed by the Central Intelligence Agency.

  Willi Krichbaum: A Senior Colonel (Oberführer) in the SS, head of the wartime Secret Field Police of the German Army and Heinrich Müller’s standing deputy in the Gestapo. After the war, Krichbaum went to work for the Critchfield organization and was their chief recruiter hiring many of his former SS friends. Krichbaum put Critchfield in touch with Müller in 1948.

  Heinrich Müller: A former military pilot in the Bavarian Army in WWI, Müller became a political police officer in Munich and was later made the head of the Secret State Police or Gestapo. After the war, Müller escaped to Switzerland where he worked for Swiss intelligence as a specialist on Communist espionage. In 1948 he was hired by James Critchfield, head of the Gehlen Organization. Müller subsequently was moved to Washington where he worked for the CIA until he retired.

  Joseph Trento: A writer on intelligence subjects, Trento and his wife “assisted” both Crowley and Corson in writing a book on the Russian KGB. Trento believed that he would inherit all of Crowley’s extensive files but after Crowley’s death, he discovered that the files had been gutted and the most important, and sensitive, ones given to Gregory Douglas. Trento was not happy about this.

  Frank Wisner: A Founding Father of the CIA who promised much to the Hungarians and then failed them. First a raging lunatic who was removed from Langley, screaming, in a strait jacket and later, blowing off the top of his head with a shotgun.

  Robert Wolfe: A retired librarian from the National Archives who worked closely with the CIA on covering up embarrassing historical material in the files of the Archives. A strong supporter of holocaust writers.

  Conversation No. 1

  Date: Saturday, January 27, 1996

  Commenced: 11: 02 AM (CST)

  Concluded: 11:25AM (CST)

  EC: Hello?

  GD: Mrs. Crowley. This is Gregory. Is Robert available?

  EC: I think he’s upstairs. Greg was supposed to come over….let me call him for you.

  GD: Thanks

  (Pause)

  RTC: Gregory! How are you?

  GD: Emily says you’re expecting your son…

  RTC: He’s probably not coming. Never mind. If he comes, I’ll tell you and we can talk later…in the afternoon.

  GD: I talked to Corson about a foreword for the next Mueller book. I know we mentioned this but are you willing to contribute?

  RTC: Certainly. Have it out in a few days or I can work it up and fax it to you. OK?

  GD: Fine. Thanks a lot for this.

  RTC: It’ll just make me more popular, that’s all. How are you coming with the next one?

  GD: About halfway through. I’ve decided to put in the counterfeiting business and probably do a hit on the Gehlen[1] mob…

  RTC: That ought to frost Critchfield’s worthless balls!

  GD: And I was there, don’t forget, and I know where the bum hid the money. I was thinking about doing a number about Willi (Krichbaum). He was Critchfield’s top recruiter. Wait until they find out good old Willi was a Gestapo colonel and Müller’s top deputy in the Gestapo!

  RTC: More fun and games. You really do like to twist the nuts, don’t you?

  GD: Only if they don’t come off in my hands.

  RTC: Lois would never miss them. What else goes in?

  GD: Well, I owe Corson the thing on Kronthal. He goes in for sure. Maybe Wisner too.

  RTC: Remind me to tell you about the time Frank got caught in Rock Creek giving a blow job to a black exchange student. Fine thing for a southern gentleman to get caught at.

  GD: Mississippi or something.

  RTC: Originally one of the New York Gardiners. Gardiner’s Island. Old family. They had holdings in Montana, if memory serves me…of course names elude me…but holdings in Mississippi too. Poor Frank was a first class nut case. You know about blowing his brains out all over the garage roof? Yes, I told you that, didn’t I. Couldn’t follow through on his promises to the Hungarians of our military intervention if they rose up against Stalin….

  GD: But Stalin died in 1953 and that business was in 1956…

  RTC: Yes, yes, of course but I meant the Stalin empire.

  GD: Understood. Theory and practice.

  RTC: What else new and exciting to drive them bats?

  GD: Wallenberg…

  RTC: Who cares about that hebe?

  GD: Well, the gits started the story that the Russians got him…

  RTC: We made that one up…

  GD: But Müller said the Gestapo bagged him and offed him in some farmyard.

  RTC: Had it coming. Listen, Gregory, what do you want to do about the Kennedy business? I guess there’s still interest in it. God…fifty thousand books and all of them fuller of shit than a Christmas turkey.

  GD: How many did your people write, sponsor and publish? I mean to deliberately drag carmine herrings across the path?

  RTC: Lost track. Hundreds. One thing Wisner did was to build up a very cooperative media and that includes book publishers.

  GD: I could consider that.

  RTC: Maybe after I’m dead and gone. It would be better.

  GD: Fine. Question here?

  RTC: Shoot.

  GD: Was Oswald a patsy?

  RTC: Sure. He worked for us once in Japan… at Atsugi…and also for ONI. Not high level but he was a soldier after all.

  GD: How would I handle that?

  RTC: Let’s claim he worked for Hoover![2] Why not?

  GD: I mean, did he actually?

  RTC: Christ no. Poor idiot. Jesus, what a wife! First class bitch. Thought Lee was a millionaire and when she came here, she would strike it rich. Turned out she lived in a slum and she had to put up with a loudmouth husband and then got stuck with a kid. No wonder she did what we told her.

  GD: Women are not easy to deal with. They are either at your feet or your throat.

  RTC: Oh, the truth of it all! Emily is a lovely person but I tell her nothing. And let me ask you that when you talk with her, for God’s sake, don’t talk shop with her. It would just stir her up. Most Company wives are a pack of nuts. Did I mention Cord’s wife?

  GD: I don’t think so. I…no, I don’t remember. Cord Meyer?[3]

  RTC: Right, the Great Cyclops. Or the One-Eyed Reilley.

  GD: In the center of his forehead?

  RTC: Lost it in the Pacific. Glass.

  GD: The wife?

  RTC: What?

  GD: You mentioned his wife…

  RTC: Ah yes. He married the daughter of Pinchot just after the war…

  GD: Gifford?

  RTC: Correct. The governor. Very attractive woman but her sister was even be
tter. She married Bradlee[4] who is one of the Companies’ men. He’s on the ‘Post’ now. Cord’s wife was what they call a free spirit…liked modern art, runs around naked in people’s gardens and so on. Pretty but strange and unstable. She and Cord got along for a time but time changes everything….they do say that, don’t they?…They broke up and Cord was so angry at being dumped, he hated her from then on. She took up with Kennedy. Did you know that?

  GD: No.

  RTC: Oh yes indeed. Kennedy had huge orgies out at 1600 with nude women in the pools and all that. Even had a professional photographer come in and take pictures of him in action. Old Jack loved threesomes, the occasional dyke and God knows what else. It was Joe’s money that shut people up, including his nasty wife.

  GD: I thought she was a saint. Old family…

  RTC: Bullshit! Family is Irish, bog trotters, like Kennedy. Not French at all. A greedy, lying and completely nutty woman. Never liked her. One generation here and they give up washing clothes and put up the lace curtains in the family parlor. What was I saying?

  GD: About Cord’s wife…

  RTC: Oh yes. After Mary…that was her name…Mary. You haven’t heard about her?

  GD: No.

  RTC: After Kennedy bought the farm, ex-Mrs. Meyer was annoyed. She became the steady girlfriend and he was very serious about her. Jackie was brittle, uptight and very greedy. Poor people usually are. Mary had money and far more class and she knew how to get along with Jack. Trouble was, she got along too well. She didn’t approve of the mass orgies and introduced him to pot and other things. Not a good idea. Increased chances for blackmail or some erratic public behavior. But after Dallas, she began to brood and then started to talk. Of course she had no proof but when people like that start to run their mouths, there can be real trouble.

  GD: What was the outcome?

  RTC: We terminated her, of course.

  GD: That I didn’t know. How?

  RTC: Had one of our cleaning men nail her down by the towpath while she was out for her daily jog.

  GD: Wasn’t that a bit drastic?

  RTC: Why? If you knew the damage she could cause us.

  GD: Were you the man?

  RTC: No, Jim Angleton was. And Bradlee, her brother-in-law, was in the know. After she assumed room temperature, he and Jim went over to Mary’s art studio to see if she had any compromising papers and ran off with her diary. I have a copy of it…

  GD: Could I see it?

  RTC: Now, Gregory, don’t ask too many questions. Maybe later.

  GD: Did anyone get nailed?

  RTC: Some spaced out nigger was down there but he had nothing to do with it. Our people came down on that place in busloads to help out the locals but they were searching for the gun. Our man was supposed to have tossed it into the water but it never made it in and one of our boys found it in some bushes, half in and half out of the water. Beat the locals to it by about ten seconds. Very close. See, it was one of our hit weapons that never had serial numbers. Not made that way.

  GD: Ruger made a silenced .22 during the war for the OSS. No numbers, parkerized finish.

  RTC: Same thing.

  GD: Couldn’t they have talked sense into her?

  RTC: What did Shakespeare say about angry women?

  GD: ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.’

  RTC: Exactly.

  GD: She had children?

  RTC: Some. One was killed by a drunk driver. Caused all kinds of friction in the family as I remember.

  GD: Meyer. He was tied up with Alan Cranston?

  RTC: Yes. The one-world crap.

  GD: I knew Cranston and his family. United World Federalists. He married into the Fowle family and I was a friend of one of the members. Ultra left-wing. Was at his house by the golf course one time and the bedroom bookshelf was jammed with Commie books…Debray, Mao, Lenin, Marx, Engels, Kautsky and on and on.

  RTC: Cord was under investigation by Phoebie for that.

  GD: Phoebie?

  RTC: Slang for FBI. We’ll have to talk about Cranston…he left the Senate..

  GD: I know. I nailed him. The savings and loan business. I got inside skinny on this and tipped off the media. ABC people. It went on from there.

  RTC: Good for you. Cord was tied up.

  GD: You didn’t like him.

  RTC: Nasty, opinionated, loud and a general asshole.

  GD: What did he think about doing his wife?

  RTC: Ex-wife. Let’s be accurate now. Ex-wife. When Jim talked to Cord about this, Cord didn’t let him finish his fishing expedition. He was in complete agreement about shutting her up. Gregory, you can’t reason with people like her. She hated Cord, loved Kennedy and saw things in the Dallas business that were obvious to insiders or former insiders but she made the mistake of running her mouth. One of the wives had a talk with her about being quiet but Mary was on a tear and that was that.

  GD: Yes, I think there’s something there.

  RTC: But not while I’m breathing, Gregory. Not until later. And it wasn’t my decision. I was there but Jim and the others made the final decision. You know how it goes.

  GD: Oh yeah, I know that one. But to get back to the foreword. No problem?

  RTC: None at all.

  GD: I don’t think Tom Kimmel will like that.

  RTC: I’ve heard from him on that. He doesn’t like the idea that Bill and I approve of you. I wouldn’t tell him too much if I were you. You can tell me things and sometimes you can tell Bill but Kimmel has a mouth problem.

  GD: I helped him with the Pearl Harbor matter…

  RTC: Don’t bother. What else is going to be in the next book?

  GD: Something on the Duke of Windsor.

  RTC: Gregory, I think my son is about to come up here so perhaps we can get together later today. Call me after 6 tonight if you wish. Sorry but weekends can be busy here.

  GD: Understood.

  (Concluded at 11:25AM CST)

  Conversation No. 2

  Date: Friday, February 9, 1996

  Commenced: 9:11 AM (CST)

  Concluded: 9:38 AM (CST)

  GD: Robert.

  RTC: Good morning, Gregory. How are you doing today?

  GD: Functioning. Yourself?

  RTC: Good days, bad days. I have to be careful in the bathroom because I sometimes lose my balance.

  GD: Put in some grab irons.

  RTC: Better said than done. I have some advice for you Gregory. Don’t get old.

  GD: Do I have a choice?

  RTC: We know the alternative. Have you heard back from your publisher?

  GD: He’s too patient with me, I must say. He wants to see something about flying saucers but I have a diary entry for Müller that covers this subject and I want to put it in there. His cousin was involved in the Roswell business and Roger actually saw one of the American ones out at Moffitt Field once. Actually climbed up on it.

  RTC: Oh the hysteria of it all.

  GD: I remember very clearly. At least three sightings a week. I created one of them at least.

  RTC: How so?

  GD: Oh we made a fake saucer out of balsa and silver paper, mounted two pulse jets at the rear and set it up for radio control.

  RTC: Did you put little green men in it?

  GD: No. The pilot area was covered with a plastic salad bowl upside down, but it really wasn’t very big. We took it down to the beach on a really hot day in July and flew it from one cliff to another. Right past a beach full of fat people getting sunburns. It was a distance of…oh say about 1000 feet give or take. To me, it wasn’t realistic but we put some noisemakers inside the jet pipes and it made a shitawful noise. High whistling and farting noises. Anyway, I was on one headland and my friend was on the other. We flew it fairly slowly in a straight line and believe me, the beach was packed. Right at the surf level but about 300 feet up in the air. God, you never heard so much shrieking and yelling in your life.

  RTC: You always seem to have such a bizarre sense of humor, Gr
egory. Do you still do things like that?

  GD: No. At my age, people get stuck into nut houses doing that but at the time, I did enjoy it. I remember once we carved the dorsal fin of a Great White out of a Styrofoam boogie board, mounted an underwater motor at the base with the control antenna running up to the top. Jesus, it was a huge fin at that. And of course we painted it up right. That was about the time that ‘Jaws’ came out. And this time we took it down to an even bigger beach…..do you know the California coast by any chance? I could be more specific

  RTC: No, not really. Go on.

  GD: It was the Fourth of July and hot as shit and the beach and the surf were jammed with intercity types. There was a pier that ran out well past the surf at the northern end of the beach so we took a rented rowboat with the fake fin and the radio control equipment and rowed right under this pier. It was a big pier with a road on it and all kinds of shops along the sides so there was certainly room under it. Anyway, we put the fin in the water, turned on the motor and aimed it towards the beach. It was a little hard to direct what with the surf and all but with a few tries, we got it fine. Ran it towards the beach and then paralleled it just out past the surf line. Jesus H. Christ, Robert, you couldn’t imagine the havoc. Screaming we could hear under the pier and everyone stampeded out of the water. We ran it back and forth a few times and then headed out to where a bunch of twits were fishing and again panic reigned supreme. Little outboard jobbies fleeing in terror in all directions. I mean given the size of the fin, what was supposed to be underneath it must have been the size of the Titanic. We saw a Coast Guard boat coming so we just aimed it out to sea and opened it up. Lost the whole rig but I didn’t feel like trying to get it back. If we’d been bagged, I would have got at least ten years out of it. But probably for contaminating the beach. I’ll bet there were six inches of shit floating in the surf.

  RTC: Your escapades always entertain me, Gregory. But what do you know about real saucers? I don’t mean toys.