Episode 230 A Deeper Look at the Radical Right Wing Groups and Characters of the Early 60's Part 8 Joseph Milteer and Somersett The Weekend Trip After the Assassination

JFK The Enduring Secret

Episode 230 is the eighth in a series of episodes where we begin to explore the radical right groups of the 1960's that clearly had great motive to murder president Kennedy. Emerging, alongside civil rights leaders, as a prime target for ire of white racists, anti-communists, and and a wide variety of other conservative groups, President Kennedy was a a target among them all. This aspect of the assassination and the connection of the radical right is little explored. We started many episodes back, with the story of Joseph Milteer but its rather easy to pull on that string and find much more underneath the covers. Today's episode Part 8 tells the story of the trip that Milteer took on Saturday and Sunday November 23rd and 24th to Columbia, South Carolina. Milteer would first stop in Jacksonsville and pick up Willie Somersett at the Union bus station. From there they would proceed to Columbia, staying overnight and meeting the next day with four men, three of whom were identified members of the South Carolina Ku Klux Klan. The discussions that were had that weekend between Somersett and Milteer on their drive to Columbia and back, and while they were meeting with the Klansman, solidify in Somersett's mind that Milteer was in the know about the JFK assassination. Somersett was confident that the conspiracy had emanated from Miami, New Orleans and California based on comments that Milteer made to him.. What is miraculous regarding these statements by Milteer is that they were made over the weekend following the president's assassination and they were relayed by Somersett to the Miami Police Department Detective on the case just days later. The interrogation and Q&A are preserved in transcription and are extraordianry for their content, timing and then documentation within days of the assassination. The broader story of Milteer brings together a greater element of societal underground. We hear of the traditional groups and study them including the KKK, the John Birch Society, the White Citizens Councils, The National States Rights Party and the Minutemen. These handful of groups were intertwined with men who weaved their way in and out of the shadowy existence of this intense resistance to societal change.
Even as early as 1964, rumors and serious concerns over the lone gunman theory and the evidence that might contravene it, were becoming a major concern for the government and the commission. Conspiracy theories were contrary to the government's stated narrative from the very beginning. This real-life story is more fascinating than fiction. No matter whether you are a serious researcher or a casual student, you will enjoy the fact filled narrative and story as we relive one of the most shocking moments in American History. An event that changed the nation and changed the world forever.