The maX Files - Page 3

I continue to search the web every now and then, for information for the maX Files. One of my focal points is of course D.J. Walsh, the Executive Officer at the Motor Torpedo Boat Station training center in Melville RI who signed all of the punitive documents in my dad’s Navy Service record, and another is JFK, not because I suspect him of any wrong-doing or collusion but rather because he is a high-profile conduit to information about that place at that particular time. Or at least he should be, but in truth, the facts about JFKs service at Melville, and even the base itself are somewhat sketchy. On the other hand, Mr. Kennedy had just completed a stint with Naval Intelligence in Washington, D.C. and the nation was in a panic during most of 1942 over U-boat sinkings right off our Atlantic coast and German agents landing on our shores to commit acts of sabotage against railroads, manufacturing plants and even some notable landmarks.

Much of the responsibility for homeland defense fell on the US Navy, who found themselves having to work with the Coast Guard, the FBI, Army Intelligence and even the American Mafia to combat this real threat. I think therein lies the rub, and is the reason why so much of this story still can’t be told even today, 65 years after the fact. I suspect that if the story could be told it would be a great one, perhaps the greatest American story ever told.

Some of the facts did actually come out in the case of Senator X. The following is reprinted from a Time Magazine article dated June 1, 1942, which is freely available on the internet at this website: Senator X

The incident opened on May 1 when the pro-New Deal [New York] Post published a first installment based on the affidavit of one Gustave Beekman, convicted proprietor of a Brooklyn male brothel where “Senator X” was alleged to have met sailors. For illustration, the Post ran a front-face silhouette of the Senator’s head with the features washed out.Later the Senator’s name was spelled out: SEN. WALSH NAMED AS SEN. X—LINKED TO NAZI SPY NEST. A bold-head box quoted the Senator: “It’s a diabolical lie.” In an editorial the Post declared there was no evidence to show that Senator Walsh had “wittingly or unwittingly” given away secrets to Nazi agents.The story was generally known in New York City and Washington, but except for Manhattan’s PM (which published brief, cautious mention of the Post stories) all the rest of the U.S. press, afraid of libel and shrinking from dirt, avoided the story like the plague. The Senate tiptoed about, unwilling to face the fact that accusations of the worst kind had been publicly leveled at one of its members. Senator Barkley last week offered an excuse: when Senator Walsh came to him, “visibly agitated,” he advised him to sit tight until the FBI could be got to make a private report.

Senator Barkley also congratulated Senator Walsh “upon the calm demeanor which he has exhibited in the face of this contemptuous and contemptible charge.” Last week, after Senator Barkley revealed the scandal to the nation at large, Senator Walsh’s calm demeanor continued. Up to this week he had yet to file a libel suit against the Post.

Once the scandal was announced in the Senate, however, several of those in the Senate and in the press who last year were isolationists took up the cudgels for Senator Walsh. Missouri’s Bennett Clark demanded an immediate Senate investigation of “the old hussy who runs the New York Post” (38-year-old Dorothy Schiff Backer). Senators Wheeler and Nye denounced the Post’s exposé as a “diabolical attempt” to smear all isolationists. Senator Nye said he knew for a fact that “a secret society” had been operating for two years to gather smear material.

Uncontrite. the Post promptly called Senator Barkley’s report a “whitewash.” demanded the FBI’s report be made public, asked for a full Senate investigation.

It got hold of Beekman again, published his affidavit declaring the FBI had third-degreed him into admitting that he had mistaken Senator Walsh for another man, called ”Doc.” from Connecticut.

The known facts made only one thing indisputable: either a serious scandal was being hushed up or a really diabolical libel had been perpetrated.

As it turned out, the story had broken after New York City detectives, accompanied by Naval Intelligence Officers, had raided the homosexual brothel in Brooklyn, believed to be a nest for Nazi spies. Questioned after his arrest the proprieter had identified Senator Walsh as a regular customer, and stated that he had seen him conversing with a known nazi spy, Mr. E. We learn from J. Edgar Hoover’s confidential letters and papers that the FBI didn’t really have to open an investigation of their own into the matter to exonerate the Senator, because they had already had the brothel under surveillance at the time of the incident, and had even planted listening devices, or bugs in the establishment. It is from these and other wire-taps by the New York City DA’s office that we learn of the link between organized crime and Naval Intelligence.

But for me the interesting part is the involvement of Senator D.I. Walsh, whose name just keeps popping up all over the place.