Dallas 1963 Killed JFK

<Larrie Schmidt, 1936-2022.   This is Larrie in Munich ca. 1962.  Larrie in 2012 kindly allowed me to interview him.  He was very active in Dallas in 1963 and watched events unfold quite closely. His story is so interesting.>

When we say that the CIA did not kill JFK, the implication is that other Americans did.  The FBI found no evidence of foreign conspiracy.  To remove the spotlight from everybody else, the FBI chose (for national security reasons, they said) to blame a “Lone Gunman,” Lee Harvey Oswald (hereafter LHO), for all the chaos on Dealey Plaza that afternoon.

More than 60 years later, most Americans still don’t believe one person could have done all that damage. 

In our view, although the FBI covered up the true killers of JFK, the FBI didn’t kill JFK either.  The FBI told us the truth about why they lied to us – National Security.  It was the Cold War.  Riots could have erupted if the truth came out – that a grassroots US political movement of the extreme right wing did it. 

We say the nationwide Minuteman paramilitary movement was generically responsible, but more specifically, the Minutemen in Dallas, Texas, under the leadership of resigned General Edwin Walker did it. Walker was the only US General to resign in the 21st century and he had clashed violently with JFK in 1962.  (Walker was also a witness for the Warren Commission, hereafter WC).

We fully expect that the current and final flood of released JFK documents will provide FBI records (not CIA records) that will confirm our suspicions as historical fact.   

As one backstory for this perspective I will revive my 2012 interviews of Larrie Schmidt, who was not a WC witness but was named in the WC testimony of CUSA member, Bernie Weissman.  Bernie, we all know, was the one who signed the infamous “Black Bordered Ad” in the Daily Morning News on that fateful morning.   Bernie testified that Larrie had a leading role in the design and publication of that Ad.

Larrie was the leader of “Conservatism USA” aka “CUSA”.  Bernie was one of the members.  Larrie did not testify for the WC, but he told me personally in 2012 that he was willing to testify – and that the US government knew exactly where he was in 1964 – in Miami volunteering at JMWAVE still trying to topple Fidel Castro.

For nearly three months Larrie shared many insights into the Dallas of late 1962 and 1963 with me

over telephone, email, and postal mail.  (Four years later I introduced Larrie to Gayle Nix Jackson, who also interviewed Larrie in her fine book, “Pieces of the Puzzle: An Anthology,” in 2017.  Larrie died in 2022.)

With this month’s allegedly final release of JFK records (March, 2025), I expect the full truth about JFK Assassination to finally come home.  To that end, I offer this review of Larrie Schmidt’s memoirs to me.

MY INTERVIEW OF LARRIE SCHMIDT IN 2012

Back in 2012 I was enjoying an independent study at UT Austin under US History Professor H.W. Brands on the topic of the resigned General Edwin Walker.  I had hoped to interview any associates of Walker still living.  One was Larrie Schmidt.  I sent out a lot of blind letters to lots of Larrie Schmidt’s across the US, and Larrie replied.  “You found me,” he wrote.  He knew exactly what I wanted to learn from him though we never met before.  Larrie sent me his hone number and email address and we began.

First, his childhood.  Larrie’s mother died when he was one year old, and he and his older brother, Robbie, were raised by their grandparents in an old, German-speaking village near Lincoln, Nebraska.  Larrie dropped out of high school in 1954 and joined the US Army.  After his honorable discharge with a GED in 1957, Larrie went to Miami U. for a degree in journalism.  He started a promising career and met several famous reporters and other celebrities.   

Then he fell in love with a nice, Jewish girl.  But her wealthy father aggressively forbade her to date middle-class Larrie, so she cut it off.  Larrie was so heartbroken that he quit his career short and joined the Army again, just to get away.  It was 1959.  Robbie wasn’t doing much in those days, so Larrie convinced Robbie to join the Army, too.  Larrie was shipped off to Germany.  Robbie was shipped off to Hawaii.

GERMANY, 1959

Because Larrie now had a college degree and some real experience in journalism, he was sent to Munich as US Army liaison in charge of advertising the new US Armed Forces Recreation Center organized in upper Bavaria.  (The rumor that Larrie served under General Walker in Augsburg is simply mistaken.  Larrie served in Bavaria and never met Walker in Germany.)

Larrie immersed himself in his new job.  First, he got to know every inch of the park and all of its history.  It included the sites of the 1936 Olympics.  It was formerly Hitler’s “Eagle’s Nest,” and it had bunkers reserved for Hitler, Himmler, Göring, Hess, and Ribbentrop, he recalled.  Larrie would spend nights in every one. 

Larrie spent the slow weeks reading books, including Hitler’s Mein Kampf (1925) and speeches by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.  Larrie was never a Nazi or Antisemite, but he was impressed at how these bizarre men could persuade millions to follow their bizarre beliefs.  What journalism.

Other books Larrie read during this period included Ayn Rand’s, Atlas Shrugged (1957), and Barry Goldwater’s, Conscience of a Conservative (1960).  Larrie began to get some big ideas.   

Larrie’s advertising campaign for the new recreation park was wildly successful.  Top brass came.  Hollywood celebrities came.  Larrie wore a tux as his chauffeured limo drove him to the US Army airport to escort VIPs to their quarters.  On weekends, Larrie met some drinking buddies at a local bar, “The Lukullus.”  There were lots of pals, but the core five were Larry Jones, Norman Baker, Bill Burley, Bernie Weissman (a WC witness), and Larrie.  They talked about women, but they also talked about politics.

Then came late 1960 and JFK became US President.  Suddenly came early 1961 and the Bay of Pigs.  “I was so disgusted with our government and so humiliated,” said Larrie.  As a coincidence, on the same day as the Bay of Pigs, General Edwin Walker was instantly removed from his post as Commander over 10,000 troops at Augsburg, Germany, because of a scandal in the Army newspapers about his activism in the John Birch Society (hereafter JBS).

(Walker would soon fully resign from his 30-year Army career after over losing that Command. Though JFK offered him another post in Hawaii, Walker turned it down and forfeited his Army pension, and compared his situation to President Truman’s firing of General Douglas MacArthur.  Walker left the Army and headed straight for Dallas into the waiting arms of H.L. Hunt, ready to bankroll Walker’s campaign for Governor of Texas – a campaign he would lose to John Connally in early 1962.)

Larrie’s pals at Lukullus supported Barry Goldwater for President, following his campaign in their reviews of articles in Time, Life, Newsweek, and the US News & World Report.  They observed the emergence of a New American Right in protest of JFK – centered in Dallas with its NIC (National Indignation Committee), its YAF (Young Americans for Freedom), H.L. Hunt’s Life Line, the Friends of Walker, and perhaps the wealthiest and most influential JBS chapters in America. 

Larrie told his pals about his latest idea – a new political group called “Conservatism USA,” aka “CUSA.”   Once they were all discharged from the Army, they could unite all conservative groups in America under CUSA.  They would all be kingmakers – and rich.  Fourteen men made that pact with Larrie as their leader. 

CUSA was now fifteen members – the original five Inner Circle plus ten Outer Circle.  Five of the members were ethnically Jewish, so it wasn’t Antisemite.  Also, religion was no part of CUSA though they noticed that most of the New Right were Evangelical.  But that was a minor point, thought Larrie – Anticommunism was the real issue, and Barry Goldwater (also a Jew) could unite all American rightists, he believed.

THE OLE MISS U. EPISODE

Suddenly it was September, 1962.  Larrie would be discharged from the Army in a few weeks.  America had just survived the Cuban Missile Crisis and was still standing though exhausted.  But the big news of the month came from Oxford, Mississippi, at Ole Miss University.  A potential racial riot loomed with the resigned General Edwin Walker at the lead. 

Larrie glued himself to the radio.

The cause of the riot was the Old South Law that no African-American may attend an all-white college.  But an honorably discharged US Airforce pilot, an African-American member of the NAACP, namely, James Meredith, qualified to go to college with his GI Bill, and his family lived down the street from Ole Miss.  So, Meredith applied there and was accepted.  Sort of.

Governor Ross Barnett canceled Meredith’s application, citing the Old South Law.  But this was 1962 and the Civil Rights movement was just getting started.  The NAACP sprang into action. Its brave officer, Medgar Evers, filed injunctions and legal challenges in support of Meredith.  It became national news.

Alabama Governor George Wallace, a Democratic Presidential candidate on the segregation ticket, spoke out boldly for Barnett and the Old South Law.  The resigned General Walker would also weigh in – not so much with a speech but with a nationwide call to arms.  Walker’s supporters paid for radio and TV ads nationwide to broadcast Walker’s call for “ten thousand strong from every state in the union” to descend on Ole Miss on the final days of September, 1962 before college registration closed.

The caravans began to move to Oxford from all over the US.  JFK was perplexed.  This was immediately after the Cuban Missile Crisis!  What the hell?  Violence on the Ole Miss campus had already begun, so JFK sent in the National Guard.  Thousands of US troops sped to Oxford and set up road blocks.   The FBI surrounded the Lyceum building at the center of Ole Miss – presumably where James Meredith was being protected.

Every car was stopped by the National Guard on every road going into Oxford, the traffic jam was gigantic.  They confiscated lots of firearms, but protesters kept streaming in from all over America.  There were thousands of them.   An angry mob surrounded the FBI men around the Lyceum. The mob started to throw bricks.  The FBI shot back teargas.  It was a stalemate.  The mob needed a leader.  Then the resigned General Walker arrived.

According to UPI, Walker led the mob in attacking the FBI and National Guard all night long.  The rioters highjacked a steamroller until the FBI seized it from them.  Then they highjacked a firetruck, but again, the FBI seized it.  At dawn the news came over the radio.  On October 1, 1962, James Meredith was duly registered as a student at Ole Miss U.  He was in his dorm room and would have a daily FBI escort between classes. 

The battle was over.  Hundreds had been wounded and two were killed.  Everybody else went home.   Everybody, that is, except the resigned General Walker.  JFK and RFK had Walker arrested early that morning.  In hindsight, JFK should probably have sent Walker to a federal or military prison, but he and RFK were so perturbed, that instead they remanded Walker to the military insane asylum at Springfield, Missouri for a 90-day psychiatric examination. 

Larrie was outraged by this action.  He wasn’t the only one.  Even liberals joined the national protest of mixing psychiatry with politics.  Walker was set free after only three days – allowed to fly back to Love Field on October 5th, to an adoring crowd that extolled him as the next US President – as he awaited trial.

Larrie was honorably discharged on 22 October 1962 as the other members of CUSA remained in Germany and waited for signs of Larrie’s lone progress.  Larrie flew immediately to Dallas with two goals in mind.  While in Germany he had met Barbara, his fiancé, a Texan girl, and he aimed to marry her when he arrived in Texas.  His second goal was to make personal contacts with rightist politicians in Dallas.

Once married in Dallas, they got a simple apartment and Larrie got a job with UPI (United Press International) watching politics.  Next, he met Frank McGehee, founder of the NIC, who quickly offered Larrie a position on the NIC executive board.  McGehee then introduced Larrie to Joe Grinnan, a key officer for the Dallas JBSs, along with Robert Allen Surrey, president of Walker’s American Eagle Publishing Company.   

At one of their JBS meetings, Larrie also met the legendary attorney, Robert Morris, former legal aide for Senator Joe McCarthy and a recent president of the University of Dallas.  Larrie also met Warren Carroll, chief writer for Hunt’s Life Line program.  Excited by the fast pace, Larrie wrote regularly to the CUSA  back in Germany with his progress. 

When Walker finally came to trial in Oxford, in December 1962, it was Robert Morris who stepped up to defend him.  In January, 1963, Morris raised his defense – he made the whole trial revolve around whether or not Walker was insane.  He brought in psychiatrists just as Washington DC sent in psychiatrists.  The Grand Jury agreed – Walker was not insane and so they dropped all charges against Walker for his role at Ole Miss.  (The transcripts of Walker’s Grand Jury hearings are among Walker’s personal papers stored at UT Austin’s Briscoe Center for US History, so we know all the details).

In February 1963, Larrie and Barbara attended a JBS meeting at Robert Morris’s home.  Everybody was there, and Morris announced that Larrie was now the new Northwest Executive Secretary of YAF.  In his excitement, Larrie got carried away with the local Dallas culture.  He began to flirt with racist lingo, and he wrote to Bernie Weissman advising him to convert from Judaism to Christianity.  (Larrie later regretted that letter deeply.)

As a leader in the NIC and YAF, Larrie could tell me – the JBS people he knew in Dallas did not accept the standard JBS claim that US President Eisenhower had been a Communist – it was merely a polemic, they said.

In February and March 1963, in celebration for beating all charges arising from his Ole Miss racial riot, the resigned General Walker took a victory lap, coast to coast, covering every major Southern city from Miami to Los Angeles.  He traveled along with his long-time pal, segregationist Evangelical preacher, Billy James Hargis, and they both preached the JBS gospel to thousands, coast-to-coast, namely, that JFK was a secret member of the Communist Party. 

THE ADLAI STEVENSON EPISODE – OCTOBER 1963

The week that General Walker returned to Dallas from his coast-to-coast speaking tour, he sat down to do his taxes and a rifle shot burst through his window, barely missing his head.  Walker rushed upstairs to get his pistol, and he heard a car screeching away outside.  Police came and the neighbor boy next door reported that he saw two men running into a car.  The Dallas Police had no other clues.

In the meantime, Larrie’s big brother Robbie had just been discharged from the Army and needed a job so he moved to Dallas.  Surrey told Larrie he could get Robbie a job as General Walker’s live-in chauffeur.   (Surrey had evicted Walker’s previous chauffer, William Duff, from the premises while Walker was on his coast-to-coast speaking tour.)  Lucky for all parties, in Robbie’s Army post in Hawaii he had served as another General’s aide.  Robbie took the job.

Larrie made Robbie an honorary member of CUSA and YAF and he asked Robbie to report anything unusual there at Walker’s home, which doubled as the headquarters of Walker’s American Eagle Publishing Company.  Yet Robbie was disinterested in politics – so he basically ignored Larrie’s request.   Robbie neither attended CUSA meetings, YAF meetings, nor joined the “Friends of Walker.”  

On 9 June 1963, CUSA member Larry Jones arrived in Dallas with his fiancé Betty Rust.   He reported to Larrie that after Larrie left Germany, CUSA had simply collapsed.  Larry and Betty were only interested in CUSA’s business plans because they needed jobs right away.  Larrie had no jobs for anybody, but he had an idea.  Robbie’s favorite bar, the Ducharme Club, was up for sale.  Larrie introduced Larry to the owner, to negotiate buying the bar if the owner would carry a loan.  After seven weeks of trying and failing, Larry and Betty just moved out of Dallas without saying goodbye. 

Meanwhile, Larrie was engrossed in building the membership of the YAF.  His favorite recruiting grounds were at Southern Methodist University and Dallas University.  SMU was too liberal, so DU gave the best results.  In July, Larrie asked Joe Grinnan for permission to start his own JBS chapter for college youth, and Joe granted it.  Larrie was growing in political stature in Dallas.  

During this same time, the Supreme Court banned required Bible reading and the Lord’s Prayer in schools.  The American Right enjoyed a sharp uptick in support at this time, and so did Larrie’s YAF.

Larrie wrote to Bernie about his victories in Dallas.  Bernie was impressed, except that he remained wary of Larrie’s close proximity to General Walker, whose racism Bernie despised.  He knew Larrie Schmidt was smart, but this was flirting with danger.  And Bernie had not yet met Robbie Schmidt.

Walker was far from Larrie’s radar.  Robbie never reported anything.  Nor did Walker attend the same JBS meetings or rallies that Larrie attended.  By mid-1963 Larrie noticed that most Dallas conservatives, like Robert Morris, would ignore Walker whenever possible.  The GOP wanted to forget the Ole Miss episode.  Walker was a grand old General of WW2 and the Korean War, but that was all – forget Ole Miss.  Still, Walker was well-connected in Dallas through H.L. Hunt and the Minutemen, and he had his own JBS chapter.    

As for Walker’s aide, Robert Allen Surrey, despite their close relationship from the start to the finish of 1963, Surrey, never gave Larrie the slightest clue that he was the leader of the Nazi Party in Dallas.  In any case, Larrie convinced Bernie that once CUSA is in control of all the right-wing groups in Dallas and America,  they would be able to control General Walker.   Bernie liked that idea, so he continued to support Larrie.

Robbie Schmidt served quietly as Walker’s chauffeur and errand driver, and was never invited into any of General Walker’s private business or meetings, or ever introduced to Walker’s visitors.  Robbie was a chauffeur working for room, board, and drinking money.  But he noticed one fact – Walker always insisted on being the center of attention. 

I asked Larrie if he ever met General Walker, and he quickly replied, no, he never even saw him.  Why the emphasis?  So I asked him: you were very close with Robbie who was living with General Walker – and you never visited their house?   No, he said,  they would meet at neighborhood bars.  (I saw no reason to question him, though General Walker told Dick Russell that he once had to chase Larrie Schmidt out of his house.)

OCTOBER 1963

Things were quiet until early October 1963, when UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson announced a planned speech at Dallas Memorial Auditorium (a half-mile from Dealey Plaza) to commence October 24th.  Adlai would go to Dallas to celebrate “United Nations Day,” aka “UN Day.”  He didn’t notice how much this was like waving a red flag before the raging JBS bull.  But Larrie Schmidt did.

The JBS had long said that the UN was the very heart of Communist infiltration of Washington DC.  Wild rumors flew about Adlai Stevenson in Dallas.  Larrie soon got a call from Robert Morris with instructions to support General Walker diligently in the coming weeks.  First, assemble volunteer protesters from local colleges.  Next, on October 23rd, the day before UN Day, help General Walker booby trap the Dallas Memorial Auditorium as a counter-measure to Adlai Stevenson’s speech.

It was General Walker’s idea. He called it, “US Day,” based on a standing JBS rule: “never let a Communist finish a speech in your city.”  The JBS taught that the UN was a Communist front.  Adlai Stevenson was therefore a Communist.   So, it was the patriotic duty of every Dallas citizen to disrupt the speech of Adlai Stevenson.  That was the main plan.  

Larrie said he was kept well-informed of all known plans for US Day as well as UN Day events.  He eagerly put his shoulder to this wheel.

By this time, CUSA members Bernie Weissman and Bill Burley had been honorably discharged from the US Army and had returned to their New Jersey families.  Armed with these plans against Adlai Stevenson, Larrie wrote to Bernie and Bill to pressure them to come to Dallas.  He was the CUSA leader, and they were mere followers, and so their opinion didn’t really matter to him.  Get here!

Besides, Larrie saw something they didn’t see – the JBS in action.  Larrie had a strategy.  He told them to watch what happens to Adlai Stevenson in Dallas on October 24th.  Then decide.  Bernie and Bill agreed.

Although Bernie testified that he had warned Larrie about further involvement with General Walker, Larrie told me he did not remember that.  All he clearly remembered was that all Dallas right wing groups were enthusiastic about the “US Day” demonstration – including local Cuban Exiles.  Larrie was sure that CUSA would win the day.  

Larrie brought 12 YAF volunteers from local colleges.  The NIC brought some.  The Citizens Council brought some.  A Cuban Exile group would march beside the YAF.  They hand-painted protest placards with black marking pens to boast that these were ad hoc volunteers. 

After the public parade of YAF and Cuban Exile volunteers outside of the Dallas Memorial Auditorium, a new crop of volunteers would move inside the Auditorium for a private briefing. 

It appeared to Larrie that Walker held more control of US Day than others because Walker’s followers were more rowdy and numerous.  It was Walker’s group that organized and participated in the US Day indoor picket.  Outside, the local press had plenty to do.

Larrie also moved indoors to support the indoor picket.  He remembered Joe Grinnan in charge of planning it.  An enormous anti-UN banner was prepared, and volunteers carried the banner on the rafters above and behind the podium, and booby-trapped it to quickly unravel while Stevenson was speaking. 

Larrie attended Edwin Walker’s speech that night.  He agreed with Robbie – Walker aggressively loved the limelight.  As Larrie recalled, the outdoor protesters were more reserved and peaceful – mainly the YAF volunteers and Cuban Exiles.  But indoors was another story.  Walker’s people were rowdy, and his closing speech was entirely Walker’s show. 

Larrie wandered inside to hear Walker’s closing speech.  He told his peopleto buy as many tickets to Adlai’s speech as they could afford, and to fill the hall with family and friends.  They were going to deliberately disrupt Adlai.  Bring everybody they knew to Adlai’s speech to hear the evil the UN was planning for them.  Disrupt, yes, but no violence.  That’s what Larrie heard.  

On the night Adlai’s UN speech, Larrie’s YAF branch gathered at their pickup truck.  Larrie announced the rules: no shouting, no profanity, no violence.  They assumed there would be a police presence that night.  The Auditorium was surprisingly full that night.  YAF student volunteers arrived at the auditorium about half hour before Adlai’s speech.  They unloaded the picket placards.  People were streaming into the main entrance of the auditorium, both pro-UN and anti-UN.  

As the YAF volunteers picketed, they were joined by six Cuban Exiles.  Then, a few dozen other picketers arrived – unaffiliated as Larrie learned.  Their signs were all anti-UN, and they were all older than 50.

Only two uniformed police were there, so obviously the Dallas Police expected a quiet affair.  Larrie did, too. When an hour had passed, Larrie instructed his YAF crew to stack their signs in the pickup and go home.  Larrie himself hung around outside until the speech ended, so he could ask some friends how they liked the JBS banner trick.  The YAF and Cuban protestors had gone home, leaving about 20 unaffiliated picketers.  After the speech people began streaming out of the auditorium. 

Oddly, Adlai’s security team rushed out the front entrance rather than the rear exit, which was normal.  When Adlai was escorted out, there were perhaps 40 people loitering out front.  Adlai marched to his limo surrounded by a security phalanx.  The crowd pressed in closer, some shouting anti-UN slogans, some seeking autographs.  Suddenly, a middle aged woman’s anti-UN picket sign crashed down on Adlai.  Larrie saw it – he said it looked like an accident.  

The press reported that Adlai was spit upon, but Larrie, who was standing close by, insists that although some people did spit, none of the spit landed on Adlai.  The rowdy ones, recalled Larrie, were always Walker’s people. 

Larrie saw lots of excitement but no real violence.   The TV evening news report of a wild riot showed a  comparatively short and tame video.   When Larrie read the morning newspapers, especially in the Dallas Times Herald, he decided to respond with his own first-hand memories of the events.  The Dallas Times Herald printed Larrie’s version on the front page of their afternoon edition of October 27, 1963. 

Larrie noted that the police called no reinforcements – the 31 police at the scene were sufficient to handle anything the crowd of 40 could dish out; and the exaggerated report that there were 500 in the crowd was simply absurd. 

Larrie received countless phone calls from fellow conservatives, congratulating him his courage to “speak the truth.”  Larrie was now called a “conservative hero.”   Larrie was finally well-known in Dallas, by both left and right.

Still, Larrie’s friends inside the Dallas Memorial Auditorium that night told him that chaos had reigned in the hall, and Adlai had to quit his speech.  Larrie said their report was well documented in the Texas Observer (November 1963) in their article entitled, “An Early Halloween in Big D.”

The next morning Bernie Weissman and Bill Burley read the news and their jaws dropped.  Larrie was on the move in Dallas!  They dropped everything and moved to Dallas.  They arrived on 2 November 1963 from New Jersey without much money so they quickly took jobs as carpet salesmen.  Larrie enjoyed his October glow for most of November.  Larrie was becoming somebody.

THE DEALY PLAZA EPISODE – NOVEMBER 1963

Larrie introduced Bernie and Bill to Joe Grinnan and to his brother, Robbie.  They had little in common.

All members of CUSA were now automatically members of the YAF, said Larrie, and there were plenty of volunteer activities waiting for Bernie and Bill when they were ready.  They were not ready.

On Saturday 16 November 1963, the buzz in Dallas was the JFK would be arriving in one more week.  Larrie met with JBS leaders Joe Grinnan and Warren Carroll and decided the appropriate protest for JFK’s visit would be a newspaper Ad.  Low risk of arrests or missteps.  Joe and Warren said they would run the idea past higher JBS members – they did not name them to Larrie.

That evening Joe Grinnan called Larrie to confirm that high-placed JBS people loved the idea, and wanted to compose a sample article right away.  Joe would coordinate, and only Joe would know the names of all the contributors.  Wording for the article took a few days, and by the time that Bernie Weissman was asked to help, the project was nearly complete.  

The Ad’s headline was “Welcome, Mr. Kennedy,” to deliberately avoid the more proper, “Welcome, Mr. President.”  It was a full-page Ad with  a series of attacks on JFK in the form of questions.  Larrie thought the questions were biased, but political Ads were intended to be biased, not fair.  Larrie did not remember the wording of the Ad when I asked him informally – this suggested to me that unknown others had written the Ad.     

Joe Grinnan also collected the $1,400 needed to purchase the single-day, full-page Ad (that’s about $15,000 in today’s money).   Larrie admitted that he never learned the names of the men who contributed the money, either.  However, Larrie came up with a name for the front-group for the sponsors of the Ad, namely, the American Fact Finding Committee.  But who would sign their name to it?

Joe nominated Bernie Weissman. They reasoned with Bernie – American conservatives are unfairly labeled Antisemites, even though there were plenty of Jewish citizens in the American right wing. 

So, using a Jewish name as the sponsor would help to shatter the myth of an Antisemite right wing – and also shatter the myth that all American Jews were liberals.   Actually, anybody who criticized the Ad could quickly be accused of Antisemitism!  Besides, argued Larrie, adding his name to this Ad would launch Bernie into the Dallas political scene overnight. 

It was safe.  It was the perfect, safe protest of JFK’s appearance in Dallas.  Bernie examined the ad and he recommended two minor changes.  Joe Grinnan called his superiors right away for their approval.  The reply was prompt: ‘Yes’ to the first change, and ‘No’ to the second change.  Bernie agreed to this; he had made his contribution. 

Thursday 21 November 1963 was an exciting day for Larrie and Bernie.  They picked up a check for $1,400 from Joe Grinnan, and then Bernie drove alone to the Dallas Morning News.  The team had waited until the last moment to meet the deadline for the 22 November 1963 edition to minimize exposure.

 While at the printer’s desk, Bernie was asked for his opinion on the final appearance of the ad, and he took it upon himself to say that the black border around the ad was not large enough – he ordered the next larger size border to emphasize the content.  That was Bernie’s other contribution to the Ad.   Larrie said, “Our fate was now sealed in black.”

At the bottom of the Ad they had also placed a P.O. Box number, planned well ahead, to receive public reaction about the Ad, hoping it attracted negative as well as positive comments.   There was nothing left to do but wait and watch.  Larrie, Bernie and Bill Burley drank a lot that night. 

On Friday 22 November 1963 Larrie Schmidt stayed home from work.  Barbara took the car to work and Larrie picked up his Dallas Morning News from outside his apartment door, made some coffee and sat down to read the newspaper.  He was delighted with the play given their ad in the front section of the paper.  He wondered what JFK and his entourage would think of it.  He wondered what the left-wing would say the following day.

Late in the morning Larrie took a bus downtown to visit Joe Grinnan to have a few laughs about their Ad.  Joe offered to drive the whole gang to his favorite place for lunch that afternoon – his treat.   As they exited the office building they saw JFK’s motorcade coming down Main Street.  They watched him go by and they watched the crowd lining the street in a great, lively buzz.

There were great cheers for JFK as his limousine passed – and Joe looked at his watch, saying, “we’ve got to hurry, we’re running late.”  They sprinted to the parking garage about a block away, climbed in Joe’s car and drove to their rendezvous.  Suddenly, a police car whizzed by them; and then another.  They were speeding downtown.  Suddenly the air was full of sirens.  They observed some faces of the officers speeding by – not good.

Joe and Larrie quickly tuned into their radio news station to hear excited newscasters announce shots fired at JFK’s motorcade.  Joe, a Catholic, crossed himself.  Who would do this?   Surely none of our people!  There were sirens everywhere.  The sirens were what Larrie most remembered from that day.

Joe dropped Larrie off at the DuCharme Club, rushing to an emergency meeting.  The DuCharme was closed so Larrie waited anxiously on the sidewalk for Bernie and Bill.  Five minute later they appeared and they walked to a bar a block away.  Inside, patrons were glued to the TV.  JFK was indeed shot and was taken to Parkland hospital.  Governor Connally had also been shot. 

Who did this?  Who?  Bernie immediately exclaimed, “I hope Walker’s people weren’t behind this!”  All across Dallas many people flung rumors that the Dallas right-wing was behind it.  Shop owners with JBS posters in their windows were vandalized.  Friends turned against friends; shouting broke out in person and over the telephone.  The Dallas Police had no officers to address this level of noise.  

Bernie was miserable because his name was on the bottom of their Ad.  The sirens just wouldn’t stop for a full hour.  Then the news was final – JFK was dead.   Bernie and Bill went home.  Larrie called Barbara to advise her to stay overnight at a girlfriend’s house just in case.

Once home, Larrie cracked open a beer and turned on the TV.  Tired of the same news again and again, Larrie began calling his political contacts in Dallas.  Everyone was stumped.  Everyone denied any clue or hint about the JFK shooting. 

In the next hour the TV news announced that LHO, a local Dallas resident and employee of the Texas School Depository on Elm St. had been arrested for killing a police officer, J.D. Tippit, as well as JFK.   Larrie called all his contacts – did anybody know LHO?  No, nobody ever heard of him before.

As Larrie recalled, the Fort Worth Sun-Telegram printed evidence that LHO was a Communist.  This news spread like lightning to news outlets around the globe.  Instantly the tables were turned.  Larrie, Bernie and Bill felt an enormous relief.  Instead of blaming the Dallas right, everybody began blaming the American Left.   Instantly, LHO became a global obsession.

The CUSA guys could finally sleep that night.  The most unbelievable, confusing and momentous day of Larrie’s life had finally come to an end.  The final bit of news that day was that the Dallas Jewish community was going crazy trying to find identify Bernie Weissman – was he really Jewish, or was this some horrible anti-Semitic hoax?

The next morning Bernie contacted the FBI to tell them the full, unvarnished story.  Larrie’s hopes for a political career were now dead.  Despite the fact that Bernie’s phone number was unlisted, that morning

Bernie’s phone number would not stop ringing.  Soon, Bernie feared, his address would become public, and his life would be in danger.  The Black-bordered Ad had become a death omen.  Bernie and Bill went to the post office Saturday afternoon to retrieve lots of letters regarding their Ad. 

Larrie recalls that all the letters Saturday morning were positive – clearly mailed early on Friday morning before JFK was killed.  Because of the stress that day, Larrie and Bernie decided to destroy all those letters that day.  (Larrie later wished he had preserved them for posterity.)  Then, Larrie asked Barbara to spend another night with her girlfriend. 

On Sunday morning Bernie, Bill again went to the Post Office Box for more mail.  There they saw a lone, strange, middle-aged Jewish man watching that P.O Box carefully.  They worried that he might be armed and dangerous, so they kept moving. Larrie later recalled in Jack Ruby’s memoirs that Jack stopped at that Post Office on Sunday morning before proceeding to shoot LHO.  He was sure it was Jack Ruby.

Larrie was at home drinking coffee and reading the newspaper when Barbara called him to turn on his TV.  Somebody had just shot LHO on live TV.  The whole world was now asking, “What the hell is going on in Dallas?”  Bernie and Bill packed up for an immediate trip to San Antonio where Bill’s brother lived.  As Larrie recalled, they parted on good terms.  He never saw them again.

Again, Larrie called all his Dallas contacts to find who knew Jack Ruby.  Again, nobody.  Rumors about Bernie Weissman and Jack Ruby spread like wildfire.  Finally, Barbara told Larrie she had endured enough and wanted a quiet life again.  She left Larrie and returned to her parents. 

The FBI thoroughly debriefed Larrie Schmidt who withheld nothing.  Ultimately, Larrie told me, people like Edwin Walker made the American right-wing look reckless.  If not for Walker, mused Larrie, Barry Goldwater would have become the next US President – and would have been great.  For this Larrie would never forgive the resigned General Edwin Walker.

Thank you,

--Paul Trejo, M.A.

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