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2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992
MEMORANDUM
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19 JUL 1967
SUBJECT: Ramparts: John Garrett UNDERHILL Jr:,
Samuel George CUMMINGS, and
INTERARMCO
1. Ramparts of June 1967, Vol. 5, No. 12, pp. 28-29, contains
the following passages about Subjects:
"The day after the assassination, Gary Underhill left
Washington in a hurry. Late in the evening he showed up
at the home of friends in New Jersey. He was very agitated.
A small clique within the CIA was responsible for the as-
sassination, he confided, and he was afraid for his life and
probably would have to leave the country. Less than six
months later Underhill was found shot to death 
in his
Washington apartment. The coroner ruled it suicide.
"J. Garrett Underhill had been an intelligence agent
during World War I and was a recognized authority on limi-
ted warfare and small arms. A researcher and writer on
military affairs, he was on a first-name basis with many of
the top brass in the Pentagon. He was also on intimate terms
with a number of high-ranking CIA officials--he was one of
the Agency's 'un-people' who perform special assignments.
At one time he had been a friend of Samuel Cummings of
Interarmco, the arms broker that numbers among its cus-
tomers the CIA and, ironically, Klein's Sporting Goods of
Chicago, from whence /sic/ the mail-order Carcano alleg.
edly was purchased by Oswald.
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"The friends whom Underhill visited say he was sober
but badly shook. They say he attributed the Kennedy
murder to a CIA clique which was carrying on a lucrative
racket in gun-running, narcotics and other contraband,
and manipulating political intrigue to serve its own ends.
Kennedy supposedly got wind that something was going on
and was killed before he could 'blow the whistle on it'.
Although the friends had always known Underhill to be
perfectly rational and objective, they at first didn't take
This account seriously. "I think the main reason was,
explains the husband, "that we couldn't believe that the
CIA could contain a corrupt element every bit as ruth-
lesc and more efficient--as the mafia.'
"The verdict of suicide in Underhill's death is by no
means convincing. His body was found by a writing
collaborator, Asher Brynes of the New Republic. He
had been shot behind the left car, and an automatic pistol
was under his left side. Odd, says Brynes, because
Underhill was right-handed. Brynes thinks the pistol
was fitted with a silencer, and occupants of the apartment
building couid not recall hearing a shot. Underhill òbvi¬
ously had been dead several days.
"Garry Underhill's chilling story is hardly implausible.
As a spy apparatus the CIA is honeycombed with self-
contained cliques operating without any real central control...
2. A check of Agency records has yielded the following information.
about John Garrett UNDERHILL Jr.
a. DPOB: 7 August 1915, Brooklyn.
b. Attended high school in Brooklyn and was graduated
from Harvard in 1937.
c.
Died 8 May 1964.
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d. Was a pictorial journalist for Life,
e.
1938-1942.
Ordered to active duty with MIS, Washington, as
a second lieutenant, on 8 July 1943. Served with MIS
for 2-1/2 years, working on technical and photographic
headings for MIS publications, evaluation of intelligence,
and enemy uniforms, insignia, weapons, etc. On
9 October 1945 received a War Department staff citation
for superior work in military intelligence. Left active
duty in May 1946. `.
f. CIA memoranda of February and October 1949
show that there was interest by the New York office of
00, Contacts Division, in using Subject as a contact for
foreign intelligence. Name checks were conducted with
various military members of the intelligence community,
but these yielded insufficient information, and OO was
advised that contact should be developed with caution, on
a limited basis, and that Subject was not to receive in-
formation classified higher than confidential.
g. On 12 March 1957 national agency checks were
again requested on Subject because of interest by the
Office of Security..
h. A UP article of unknown date cites an article written
by UNDERHILL for Esquire. The article described the U.S.
Army as shockingly weak. The UP piece stated that
UNDERHILL served in military intelligence in World War
II and Korea. UNDERHILL said that he had served as 
a 
con-
sultant probably in 1956/ to an Army coordinating group.
:
i. A report of 6 August 1954 from the Office of Security,
Department of State, concerns contacts between UNDERHILL
and one Herman AXELBANK, who was trying to sell photo-
graphs of Soviet military subjects. UNDERHILL reported
these contacts to the FBI and to CIA. In November 1949
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UNDERHILL visited Washington to call the attention of CIA to
certain AXELBANK pictures and was advised that Colliers.
might be interested in some of them for an article on Russia.
UNDERHILL discussed AXELBANK, with "Ricky" Haskins of
CIA.
3. On the basis of the foregoing an inquiry was made of direc-
tor, Domestic Contact Service, whose office provided the attached
reply..
4. The following information about Samuel George CUMMINGS,
201-178343, was compiled from his 201 file and from information
provided by the Office of Security and by C/CI/SPG.
3. His date and place of birth are 4 February 1927,
Philadelphia.
b. He entered on duty with CIA as a staff employee
in December 1950. He was then a S. assigned to
Ground Branch, Weapons and Equipment Division, OSI.
In January 1952 he was transferred to the Office of
Procurement and Supply. During 1952/1953 he travelled
abroad extensively, buying foreign weapons.
C. He married a German national and consequently
resigned in November 1953, when he became a career
agent in Guatemala.
d. Cables of the 1951-1952 period state that
CUMMINGS was then buying arms for CLA and that
the arms were intended for resistance elements
behind the Iron Curtain.
e. On 17 August 1954 CUMMINGS became the
principal agent of the (CIA-owned companies known 24
as International Armament Corporation and 
Interarmco
Lt., both incorporated in Canada, Switzerland
, and
the U.S. CUMMINGS engaged in sharp practises in
his conduct of business and was also extremely diffi-
cult to control.
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f. A. 1957 cable states that a business man in
Panama, an Agency source, knew CUMMINGS to
be providing information to the FBI and also knew
him to be "careful about keeping the appropriate
U.S. Government agencies informed of his deals. "
g. In early 1958 CUMMINGS assumed sole
ownership of International Armament Corp. and
of Interarmco. (An Agency audit established the 24
net worth of these companies as $219,000.00.)
CUMMINGS bought them with a non-interest bearing
promissory note in the amount of $100,000, payable
in four annual installments of $25,000, and certain
items of inventory which had a cost value of $67,000
and a market value of $250,000. These items were]
to remain the property of CIA, and their cost was
to be returned to the Agency after they were sold.
h. On 28 June 1961 the West German publication
Der Spiegel reported that CUMMINGS had been em-
ployed by CIA as an arms expert during the Korean
War and that he had cooperated with CIA in "supplying
arms to various trouble spots".
1. Shortly after CUMMINGS-left his staff position
for Interarmco, contact with him was established by
the WH Division. This contact was taken over by
C/CI/SPG in September 1954. (CUMMINGS knows
him only by alias.) This contact is still maintained.
Until recently the principal purpose was to dispose
of arms, (and CLA made a sizeable profit on
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transactions. The current contact is not operational.
It is not based on a project, and no payments are
made to CUMMINGS who volunteers information re-
sulting from his extensive travels and high-level
contacts. An operational clearance for CUMMINGS'
use by the CI Staff as an informant was granted in
March 1958.
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j. On 4 January 1962 the Rome periodical Vie Nuove
stated that. CUMMINGS was hired by CIA as an expert
in arms and ballistics.
k. In December 1962 the Office of Security recom-
mended against his use by Domestic Contact Service as
a source, and in December 1964 the CI Staff advised that
it had no operational interest in Subject. (Comment: As
was noted above, this statement is correct, because
Subject's activity is not directed by the Agency. He
volunteers information: )
1. An Interagency Source Register memo to ACSI,
dated June 1965, stated that at that time there was
"no record of a current operational interest in Subject."
m. An Agency report of 24 February 1966 cited.
CUMMINGS as trying to procure military equipment
from Communist Bloc countries on behalf of DIA.
n. Agency reports of February and May 1967
stated that CUMMINGS had been in close contact with
the BND (West German foreign intelligence service)
for a year or more, that he had been given require-
ments by the BND, and that these included lists of.
Soviet and Bloc arms for procurement. It was also
reported that he showed a BND representative a copy
of a purchase order for the procurement of a Soviet
T-54 tank, the order having originated with DIA.
BND officials have often stated that CUMMINGS is a
CIA agent.
0.
A form dated 1 June 1967 was directed to the
Interagency Source Register by "DA", presumably
Department of the Army.
5. Agency records contain numerous references to
INTERARMCO.
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6. It is noted that UNDERHILL, CUMMINGS, and
INTERARMCO have not appeared to date in any press or
classified reports of the Garrison investigation in New
Orleans, with the tenuous exception of the Ramparts article
cited at the outset of this memorandum.
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