The Eccentric Joseph A Milteer and the Assassination of President Kennedy

Joseph Milteer crops up from time to time in the Kennedy saga as someone who had foreknowledge of the plan to murder the president in Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963. Although there is plausible data to confirm such an opinion, it is based on flimsy evidence or careless interpretations of  it.

Most of the information we have about Milteer comes from William Somersett who was an informant for the FBI from 1949-1961 at which time the agency severed the relationship. Somersett also informed for the Miami police department, the city in which he resided and worked as an organizer for the National Federation of Labor.

Milteer's FBI file is approximately 167 pages long, though other holdings by the agency concerning him may exist. Documents in his FBI file also reference Secret Service memos. Most of the FBI's material on Milteer comes from Somersett, a redacted female informant, and an interview of the subject conducted by 2 redacted FBI special agents on November 27, 1963. Many of the pages are highly repetitive, heavily redacted especially with reference to people with whom Milteer associated, and appear to begin as early as May 18, 1962. Thus Milteer was no stranger to the FBI on November 22, 1963. He also appears to be of little substantive interest to the agency.

Joseph Adams Milteer was born in Quitman, Georgia on February 26, 1902. His father was apparently prosperous, leaving his son an estate estimated at 200,000 USD when he died in 1961. Several accounts claim that Milteer was a powerful, well connected millionaire who was a player influential in the assassination of Kennedy. This view is nonsense.

Milteer graduated from Quitman High School in 1921, there concluding his formal education. His FBI file has no further information on him until 1955 when he was arrested for suspicion of burglary by the Valdosta, Georgia police, finger printed, then released.

He is generally described as unemployed, though he filled in for an acquaintance for a couple of months in 1962 transporting US Post Office mail from the Valdosta airport to the Valdosta post office. His file also contains reports that he operated some concessions around US military "reservations" for a while near Washington, DC, though it is speculative information. There is additional speculation that he was employed in Washington for about 3 1/2 years with unspecified purpose, possibly with the Supreme Court, a matter about which we will form a conclusion momentarily.

The information about his work in Washington comes from the tape recording Somersett made of a conversation between him and Milteer in Miami on November 9, 1963. The following excerpt is

MILTEER: I have a man who is the head of his underground of his own up there in Delaware, and since I worked on the Supreme Court, he wanted me to give him the lay-out there so they could go over there and do some things there, you know. But he called it off, I don't know why, I didn't even ask him why. That was his affair, but he called it off. But I was ready to go with him. I gave him the damn information he wanted.

SOMERSETT: You worked on the Supreme Court.

MILTEER: Yeah, three and a half years.

There is no follow up or details provided anywhere in his file concerning this employment, his FBI file stating that very little is known about his background. It is my view that the Supreme Court comment is a distortion of his concession operations; or, perhaps the concessions were actually his father's business in which he helped.

Regarding his physical appearance at the time of the FBI visit, Milteer is described as 5' 4", 160 lbs, White, unshaven, and a shabby dresser in old-fashioned clothes. He wore glasses, was graying, and would have been 61 at the time.

Although wealthy by 1963 standards, he never used credit, owned a 1962 Volvo and Volkswagen station wagon. He is described as frugal, living in a run down house. The files ultimately indicated that he had residences in Quitman and Valdosta.

Milteer was an only child with no known relatives living in the area. He was single, never married as far as the files are concerned, and had no known friends though he was well known around Quitman. He was regarded as an eccentric, opinionated, and largely a gadfly who published a pamphlet in Quitman deploring the conduct of the city commission - over minor defects according to the informant - for which he tried repeatedly to earn a seat.

There is discrepancy between the FBI files and Find A Grave which reports that Joseph married Helen Margaret Strouse in 1927. By the time his file is developed, he is reported as single. Find A Grave lists Margaret's life span as 1910 - 1980.

Another discrepancy between the FBI file and Find A Grave is Milteer's middle name. FBI gives it as Adams whereas his tomb stone has Abraham.

He was involved in civic organizations such as Ku Klux Klan, White Citizens Council in Atlanta, Constitution Party of America, and travelled frequently on related business throughout the south and even west coast.

The impressions I formed based upon the various reports are that Milteer was a self-important loud mouth who was all talk and no action. At one point he is reported by an informant offering to kill a black man named Cole protected by the government at a cost of 10,000 USD per month, and visited by Martin King and Gus Hall. Milteer boasted that he could "kill [him] by Tuesday" but did not relish the thought and would have to meet the target first to make sure that he did not shoot the wrong man. Further investigation found that there was no such man.

So finally we come to the "smoking gun" tape where Milteer boasts foreknowledge of a plot to kill Kennedy. Of special interest is his knowledge that Kennedy as 15 doppelgangers because he knows that he is a marked man according to Milteer. The same detail has been reported in other places that a taped phone conversation between mob members also speaks of body doubles for Kennedy. So my suspicion is that Milteer was in some way apprised of mob discussions though it does not seem likely that he had any direct connections with them. There is certainly no indication of that in the FBI files.

The context of the Somersett tape is Milteer's visit to Miami on November 9. On the 10th and 11th the former reported his information to the FBI Washington office that Kennedy would be killed at some future date possibly in Washington or Miami - nothing definite. Milteer for his part tries to impress Somersett that he has inside knowledge and that it would not be difficult to knock off Kennedy. Thirteen days later Kennedy would be dead with Milteer's jubilation.

Here is the relevant excerpt from the Somersett tape discussing Kennedy's visit to Miami:

            SOMERSETT: I don't know, I think Kennedy is coming here on the 18th, or something like that to             make some kind of speech, I don't know what it is, but I imagine it will be on the TV, and you can             be on the look for that, I think it is the 18th that he is suppose to be here. I don't know what it is             suppose to be about.

MILTEER: You can bet your bottom dollar he is going to have a lot to say about the Cubans, there are so many of them here.

SOMERSETT: Yeah, well he will have a thousand bodyguards, don't worry about that.

MILTEER: The more bodyguards he has, the easier it is to get him.

SOMERSETT: What?

MILTEER: The more bodyguards he has the more easier it is to get him.

SOMERSETT: Well how in the hell do you figure would be the best way to get him?

MILTEER: From an office building with a high-powered rifle, how many people [room noise--tape not legible] does he have going around who look just like him? Do you know about that?

SOMERSETT: No, I never heard that he had anybody.

MILTEER: He has got them.

SOMERSETT: He has?

MILTEER: He has about fifteen. Whenever he goes any place they [not legible] he knows he is a marked man.

SOMERSETT: You think he knows he is a marked man?

MILTEER: Sure he does.

SOMERSETT: They are really going to try to kill him?

MILTEER: Oh, yeah, it is in the working, Brown himself, Brown is just as likely to get him as anybody. He hasn't said so, but he tried to get Martin Luther King.

The FBI thought nothing of this windbag conversation as it did nothing to follow-up. Milteer thinks that a small one man operator Jack Brown of Chattanooga, Tennessee is the man who will do the deed. Brown died October 4, 1965.

As a fascinating aside, the FBI as early as 1962 consistently described any party interested in upholding the US Constitution as a "Hate" group such as it did with the American Constitutional Party. In fact, that is the only reason the FBI sought to locate Milteer. It was not interested in his comments about Kennedy's pending assassination - only that he was involved with ACP - a "Hate" group. Today, the FBI labels people who support the Constitution as Constitutional terrorists.

In point of fact though, during the November 27 interview, it did ask about Milteer's information, and if he had threatened the president.

The important discoveries in Milteer's FBI file are many. The FBI maintains an extensive network of spies who conduct surveillance on American citizens. It labels patriotic groups who support the Constitution's historic interpretation as "Hate" groups. It was for this reason that the FBI spied on Joseph Milteer. The agency had no interest in Milteer for his foreknowledge of Kennedy's assassination (thought its agents did ask related questions), even though it was informed of it on November 10, 1963. Contrary to other reports, Milteer was not a millionaire, and had no notable connections beyond Klan-type groups, the American Constitution Party, and other marginal political organizations. Milteer wasn't even influential enough to win a seat on the Quitman City Council which town had a population of 5000 in 1960.

Anyone poking around in Milteer's back yard, so to speak, will find nothing but rust buckets and other litter.

Reference
-, Transcript of Milteer-Somersett Tape, Mary Ferrell Foundation (website), nd, (located: Transcript of Milteer-Somersett Tape (maryferrell.org), accessed 3/21/2021)

-, Milteer, Impious Digest, September 9, 2014, (attached Milteer FBI file), location( Milteer | The Impious Digest, accessed 3/21/2021)

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