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2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992

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SECRET

19 JUL 1967

MEMORANDUM

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 Il 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 CLA 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 ClA and, ironically, Klein's Sporting Goods of

Chicago, from whence /sig/ 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 CLA clique which was carrying on a lucrative

racket in gun-running, parcotics and other contrabard.

and manipulating political intrigue to serve its own ends.

Kennedy supposedly gor 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

his account seriously. 'I think the main reason was.'

explains the husband, "that we couldn's believe that the

CIA could contain a corrupt element every bit as ruth-

lese--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 Brines of the New Republic. He

had been shot behind the left car, and an automatic pisiol

was under his left side. Odd, says Brynes, because

Underhill was right-handed. Brynes thinks the pistol

was fitied with a silencer, and occupants of the apartment

building couid not recall hearing a shot. Underhill bri-

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 operaring without any seal central control.:.."

2. A check of Agency records has jielded 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 1907.

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d. Was a pictorial journalist fo= Life, 1938-1942.

e. Ordered lo active duty with MIS, Washington, as

a second licutenant, 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.

I. CIA memoranda of February and October 1949

show that there was interest by the New York office of

0O, Contacts Division, in using Subject as i contact for

foreign intelligence, Name checks were conducted with

various military members of the intelligence community,

but these yielded insufficient information, and 0O 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 UNDEPHILL 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

Il 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 1957 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 CLA. In November 1949

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UNDERHiLL visited Washingron to ca'l the altention of ClA to

certain AXELBANK piciures and mas sarised that Colliers.

might be interested in some of them ios an article on Russia. l

UNDERHILL discussed AXELBANK mich "Ricky" Haskins of

CLA:

3. On the basis of the foregoirg an isquiry was made of direc-

805, Domestic Contact:Service, whose office provided the attached

reply..

4. The following Information abour Samuel George CUMMINGS,

201-178343, was compiled from his 201 file sad from information

provided by the Office of Security and by C/CL SPG.

I.

His date and place of birth are & February 1927,

Philadelphia.

He entered on duty with ClA as a stall employee

in December 1950. He was then a @'-o assigned lo

Ground Branch, Weapons and Equipmer: Division, OSI.

In January 1952 he was transierred to ihe Office of

Procurement and Supply. During 19s2/1953 he travelled

abroad extensively, buying foreiga reapars.

He married a German rational and consequently

resigned in November. 1953, when he became a career

agent in Guatemala.

d.

Cables of the 1951-1953 period siate that

CUMMINGS was then buying arnis for Cit and that

the arms were intended for resistance elements

behind the Iron Curtain.

On 17 August 1951 CUNNINGS became the

principal agent of the ClA-owred carionies known'?"

as International Arma

ment Corporation and Interarinco

Lt.; both incorporated in Canada, Smikerland, and

the U'.S. CUMMINGS engaged in sharp practises in

his conduct of business and was alao esiremely diffi-

cult to control.

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f. A 1957 cable states thal a business man in.:

Panama, an Agency source, kriew CUMMINGS to

be providing information lo the FBI and ilso knew

him to be "careful about keeping the appropriale

U.S. Government agencies informed of his deale. "

8. In early 1958 CUMMINGS assuried sole

ownership of International Armament Corp.' and

of Interarmico. (An Agency audit established the

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

¡'emy 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 Cla, and their cost was

to be returned to the Agency alter they were sold.

ti 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 CLA in "supplying.

arms to various trouble spots".

1. Shortly after CUMMINGS- left his stail 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.

bim only by alias.) This contact is still maintained.

Until recently the principal purpose was so dispose

of arms, (and CLA made a sizeable profit on these 24

rangactions. The current contact is not operational.

" is not baset

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 CUNNINGS'

use by the Cl Staff as an informant was granied in

March 1958.

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J.

On 4 January 1962 the Rome periodical Vie Nuove

stated that. CUMMINGS was hired by ClA as an expert

In arms and balliaties.

k.

In December 1962 the Office of Securisy 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 intereat in Subject. (Comment: As

was nored 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 1 June 1965, staled 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 reporta of February and May 1967

stated that CUMMINGS had been in close contact with

the BND (West German foreign intelligence service)

for a year of more, that he had been given require-

ments by the BND, and that these included lists of

Soviet and Bloc arma 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

ClA agent.

o. A form dated 1 June 1967 was direcled to the

Interagency Source Register by "DA", presumably

Department of the Asmy.

Agency records contain numerous references lo

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 Ramparis article

cited at the outset of this memorandum.

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