[AGL] Scoop on Sixties Surveillance!

[Gerry]

Thorne,
A high school buddy of mine became an officer in the Texas National Guard. He was not a radical, a rather straight family man who worked as a bureaucrat for the federal government (not in law enforcement). We met again in the mid-80's and over a few beers recalled our respective pasts. When he learned that I had been an Austin hippy in the '60's he told me the following:

The Texas National Guard had a plan in place to swoop into the Austin hippy neighborhoods and arrest everyone in sight. The victims were to be bussed to an abandoned air force base in West Texas which had been fixed up for the occasion. My friend was with a planning group that drove to Austin several times and patrolled the neighborhoods, putting details onto a master map. "You guys don't know how close you came to being residents of West Texas," he told me. "Why didn't the deal go down?" I asked him. "Don't know," he said, "Guess it was tabled when LBJ decided not to run again."

I immediately recalled all the rumors of "The Big Bust" we used to joke about in the '60's. Turns out it was not a joke and presumably came pretty close to being a fact. The rumors were strong enough to serve as a major factor in the decisions of many of us to move to San Francisco and also to Berkeley where some of us lived during the People's Park episodes in which the California National Guard did, in fact, invade the town and conduct mass sweeps in which hundreds of people were arrested and bussed to a former air force base where they were held in legal limbo for a time.
G


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: thorne dreyer 
  To: austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net ; GHETTO2 at LISTS.WHATHELPS.COM 
  Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 11:36 AM
  Subject: [AGL] Scoop on Sixties Surveillance!


  Friends,

  I am working on an article for the Texas Observer and I'd appreciate input from you guys.
  When Allen Hamilton died (he was UT campus police chief in the sixties), his son discovered boxes of papers and sold them to Half Price Books who in turn donated them to the UT library.  Most of the stuff was about Whitman and it was delivered immediately; the remainder was records of surveillance by campus police: of sds and other activists, of dopers, lots of mentions of the Ghetto ("a haven for campus Jews"), etc.  Anyway, the good folks at Half Price, fearing that this stuff would be buried by UT, contacted Alice Embree and offered us access to the materials before turning them over. So we went to Dallas and scanned and copied the whole kit 'n caboodle.  There are lists and memos and photos.  Janis Joplin shows up lots! Billy Lee Brammer.  Shelton.  Jerry Jeff Walker. Richard Friedman. As do a number of people on the ghetto list.

  I'm doing a story on these materials, but also tying them into the larger picture of harassment and surveillance in the sixties, including the Cointelpro activities of the FBI. 
  I'm interested in any memories, stories, inside poop any of you may have regarding the campus police, Bert Gerding and the Austin red squad, other law enforcement agencies and so on. Any direct harassment, provocateur actions, dirty tricks. Anything about the murder of George Vizard (Hamilton was a suspect at first!); I may be doing a sidebar looking back at that.  Also, if anybody knew a guy named Jeff Gardner.  He was apparently Austin SDS treasurer for a while, and was an informant.

  And, of course, I need stuff right away!  This week.  My deadline's the 30th.

  Respond onlist or to my rr. email site below.

  Thanks for your help,

  Thorne

  tdreyer at austin.rr.com
  512-436-9968
  713-210-9608 (cell)
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