Elgin English Crull
Encyclopedia
Elgin English CrullAKA Elgin and Elgin E. Crull,had been the longest serving city manager of Dallas, Texas (1952-1966) to date and held that position during the time of the PresidentJohn F. Kennedy
assassination. As a person who is connected to JFK's death, Crull's name is difficult to find anywhere in the literature about the assassination until recently when Michael Collins Piper
's The Final Judgment and more recently Vincent Bugliosi
's Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy blamed him for the murder of Lee Harvey Ostwald.
, and Erik Jonsson. "This was a time when Dallas experienced its greatest growth under Crull's tight efficient government. He is credited with creating a series of capital improvement programs which resulted in extensive public works projects: The present city hall, Dallas Memorial Auditorium, Love Field Terminal and much of the city's major thoroughfares were among the projects completed while he was in office".
and Indiana's Culver Military Academy. For higher education, Crull first matriculated at Purdue University
in West Lafayette, Indiana for the 1926-27 academic year. Already before enrolling at Purdue, Crull had shown an interest in becoming a newspaper reporter and was familiar with the work that Walter Williams
had done to promote journalism, including the founding of the Missouri School of Journalism
. That interest prompted Crull to transfer to the University of Missouri
in Columbia, Missouri
in 1927 to enroll in the school that Williams had built. There he worked on the student newspaper and was an active member of Kappa Sigma
fraternity.
, Crull came to Dallas, Texas
in 1931 to become a reporter for the Dallas Journal. He quickly rose to become a senior reporter and was in that capacity when the Dallas Journal merged with the Dallas Dispatch
in 1938. Because he covered the "city beat', Crull came to the attention of James W. Aston, Dallas's city manager at the time who hired him to become his assistant. From 1942 to 1946, Crull served as an U.S. Air Force officer with the rank of major and spent more than half of his time in the service with the management control staff of the Pentagon
. He returned to Dallas to assume his old job. This time serving under Roderic B. Thomas. When Charles C. Ford became the city manager in 1951, Crull became the assistant city manager and thereafter city manager when Ford resigned. In 1966, he resigned to become both a vice-president of the Howard Corporation and the Republic National Bank(First Republic Bank Corporation),retiring from both positions in late 1974. Crull died in Dallas's Parkland Hospital in 1976 after a long illness. He was survived by his wife, Katherine Virginia Galbraith.
and Vincent Bugliosi
, even though their theories about Kennedy's death are so different, have been so bold to declare that Crull set Ostwald up as set forth in The Final Judgment and Reclaiming History....
As city manager of Dallas, Crull basically had a carte blanche to run the city: Certainly, he had the power to appoint; and the appointment of Dallas Police Chief Jesse E. Curry had been his. Curry had also been a friend. Piper, Bugliosi, and others have speculated as to why Crull ordered Chief Curry to transfer Lee Harvey Ostwald in the manner it was done. Obfuscation of Crull's role becomes more so with the knowledge that he had gone to Lake Texoma
to be on his boat while Ostwald was being transferred and then shot by Jack Ruby
.
That Crull's role in the matter may somehow have seemed sinister to some has also been fueled by innuendo. His years of service to Dallas and his newspaper career had brought him into intimate contact with the Who's Who in Texas politics, from Lyndon Baines Johnson to Sam Rayburn
. Big oil's proponents, such as H.L. Hunt, Neil Mallon, John W. Mecom, Sr.
, and Clint Murchison to name a few, would have been among Crull's acquaintances and friends. The fact that his old mentor, James W. Aston, who was Chairman of the Board of Texas's largest bank, Republic National Bank, hired him to become an executive of that bank in 1966 only heightens the speculation because of that bank's connections and board of directors. For example, the Bruce Campbell Adamson books depict the bank and its building as being a beehive of CIA activity. Having served at the Pentagon
also does not curb the innuendos about Crull for enough blogs have described him as not only having been a well-connected person but also as one having been a part of the American intelligence apparatus.
Looking at Crull through prisms of innuendo and speculation can paint him as possibly having been a heavy. This also occurs for Earle Cabell
, Dallas's mayor at the time. His brother U.S. air Force General Charles P. Cabell
had been Deputy Director of the CIA until Kennedy had forced him to resign in the wake of the Bay of Pigs Invasion
fiasco. Conspiracy theorists have suggested that Earle Cabell, and even possibly Crull, had rerouted JFK's motorcade. Researchers, however, have debunked this theory; likewise, testimonies from varied sources have evinced that Crull did not set up Ostwald. The manner of moving Ostwald had been conducted to show the public that he had not been mistreated or subject to "gestapo" tactics. It was a procedural matter which Crull had delegated to the police department in his efficient manner which allowed him to make his weekend trip to his boat. Later, when Ostwald had been shot, and Ruby had been jailed, Waggoner Carr
, the Texas Attorney General, and the local district attorney had wanted to open hearings on the JFK, Ostwald, and Ruby deaths. Crull realized that these might become circuses and that evidence might be compromised. It was by chance that he ran into his old friend FBI Special Agent Vincent Drain who suggested that all the evidence be turned over to the FBI and taken to Washington, D.C.
, so that it could be preserved. Given his efficient nature, Crull saw this as the solution to avoiding the potential problems that local hearings could create.Conspiracy theorists might say that Drain, too, may be suspect since his father-in-law had founded Ashland Oil.
Obviously, if one wants to beat a dog, sticks can always be found; so, too, with conspiracy theories and JFK's death. Since it is inhumane to beat a dog, it is...regarding the rehashing of the story (ies) of JFK's death. If the outcomes of the Warren Commission
satisfied JFK's brother, Robert F. Kennedy
, they, too, should have been satisfactory for everyone else.
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
assassination. As a person who is connected to JFK's death, Crull's name is difficult to find anywhere in the literature about the assassination until recently when Michael Collins Piper
Michael Collins Piper
Michael Collins Piper is a political writer, conspiracy theorist, and talk radio host living in Washington D.C. He is a regular contributor to the American Free Press, a newspaper backed by Willis Carto....
's The Final Judgment and more recently Vincent Bugliosi
Vincent Bugliosi
Vincent Bugliosi is an American attorney and author, best known for prosecuting Charles Manson and other defendants accused of the Tate-LaBianca murders. His most recent books are Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy , The Prosecution of George W...
's Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy blamed him for the murder of Lee Harvey Ostwald.
Overview of Crull's City Managership and Dallas, Texas
For fourteen years (1952-1966), Crull was Dallas' city manager, holding the position during the administration of four mayors: J.B. Adove, Jr., R.L. Thornton, Earle CabellEarle Cabell
Earle Cabell , was a Texas politician who served as mayor of Dallas, Texas. Cabell was mayor at the time of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and was later a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was son of Dallas mayor Ben E. Cabell and grandson of Dallas mayor William L. Cabell...
, and Erik Jonsson. "This was a time when Dallas experienced its greatest growth under Crull's tight efficient government. He is credited with creating a series of capital improvement programs which resulted in extensive public works projects: The present city hall, Dallas Memorial Auditorium, Love Field Terminal and much of the city's major thoroughfares were among the projects completed while he was in office".
Early Life and Education
Crull was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1908. He briefly attended Ohio's Western Reserve AcademyWestern Reserve Academy
Western Reserve Academy is a private, mid-sized, coeducational boarding and day college preparatory school located in Hudson, Ohio.-History:...
and Indiana's Culver Military Academy. For higher education, Crull first matriculated at Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
in West Lafayette, Indiana for the 1926-27 academic year. Already before enrolling at Purdue, Crull had shown an interest in becoming a newspaper reporter and was familiar with the work that Walter Williams
Walter Williams
Walter Williams, Walt Williams and Wally Williams may refer to:*Dootsie Williams , American record executive and producer...
had done to promote journalism, including the founding of the Missouri School of Journalism
Missouri School of Journalism
The Missouri School of Journalism at University of Missouri in Columbia, claims to be the oldest formal journalism school in the world. Founded in 1908, only the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Paris established in 1899 may be older...
. That interest prompted Crull to transfer to the University of Missouri
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
in Columbia, Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
Columbia is the fifth-largest city in Missouri, and the largest city in Mid-Missouri. With a population of 108,500 as of the 2010 Census, it is the principal municipality of the Columbia Metropolitan Area, a region of 164,283 residents. The city serves as the county seat of Boone County and as the...
in 1927 to enroll in the school that Williams had built. There he worked on the student newspaper and was an active member of Kappa Sigma
Kappa Sigma
Kappa Sigma , commonly nicknamed Kappa Sig, is an international fraternity with currently 282 active chapters and colonies in North America. Kappa Sigma has initiated more than 240,000 men on college campuses throughout the United States and Canada. Today, the Fraternity has over 175,000 living...
fraternity.
Career
After the University of MissouriUniversity of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
, Crull came to Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
in 1931 to become a reporter for the Dallas Journal. He quickly rose to become a senior reporter and was in that capacity when the Dallas Journal merged with the Dallas Dispatch
Dallas Dispatch
The Dallas Dispatch was a daily evening newspaper published in Dallas, Texas from 1906 until it was combined with the evening Dallas Journal in 1938 to create The Dallas Dispatch-Journal, the name of which was shortened to The Dallas Journal in 1939 and which ceased publication in 1942.The...
in 1938. Because he covered the "city beat', Crull came to the attention of James W. Aston, Dallas's city manager at the time who hired him to become his assistant. From 1942 to 1946, Crull served as an U.S. Air Force officer with the rank of major and spent more than half of his time in the service with the management control staff of the Pentagon
Pentagon
In geometry, a pentagon is any five-sided polygon. A pentagon may be simple or self-intersecting. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagram is an example of a self-intersecting pentagon.- Regular pentagons :In a regular pentagon, all sides are equal in length and...
. He returned to Dallas to assume his old job. This time serving under Roderic B. Thomas. When Charles C. Ford became the city manager in 1951, Crull became the assistant city manager and thereafter city manager when Ford resigned. In 1966, he resigned to become both a vice-president of the Howard Corporation and the Republic National Bank(First Republic Bank Corporation),retiring from both positions in late 1974. Crull died in Dallas's Parkland Hospital in 1976 after a long illness. He was survived by his wife, Katherine Virginia Galbraith.
Professional Associations
Crull had been a past president of the Texas City Managers Association; a member and past vice-president of the International City Managers Association; a member of the Municipal Finance Officers Association and a Rotarian.Crull and the JFK Conspiracy Theories
Much has been written and said about the Kennedy assassination. Was this the work of gangsters? the CIA? Castro? Israel and the Mossad? or a combination of the foregoing or more? All have been grist for the thousands of pages which compose the literary canon about the event and the possible conspiracies associated with it. One lingering question has been: "who set up Ostwald?" Until recently, Crull's name had never surfaced; and given his position, there were some who began wondering why over time. Michael Collins PiperMichael Collins Piper
Michael Collins Piper is a political writer, conspiracy theorist, and talk radio host living in Washington D.C. He is a regular contributor to the American Free Press, a newspaper backed by Willis Carto....
and Vincent Bugliosi
Vincent Bugliosi
Vincent Bugliosi is an American attorney and author, best known for prosecuting Charles Manson and other defendants accused of the Tate-LaBianca murders. His most recent books are Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy , The Prosecution of George W...
, even though their theories about Kennedy's death are so different, have been so bold to declare that Crull set Ostwald up as set forth in The Final Judgment and Reclaiming History....
As city manager of Dallas, Crull basically had a carte blanche to run the city: Certainly, he had the power to appoint; and the appointment of Dallas Police Chief Jesse E. Curry had been his. Curry had also been a friend. Piper, Bugliosi, and others have speculated as to why Crull ordered Chief Curry to transfer Lee Harvey Ostwald in the manner it was done. Obfuscation of Crull's role becomes more so with the knowledge that he had gone to Lake Texoma
Lake Texoma
Lake Texoma is one of the largest reservoirs in the United States, the 12th largest Corps of Engineers lake, and the largest in USACE Tulsa District....
to be on his boat while Ostwald was being transferred and then shot by Jack Ruby
Jack Ruby
Jacob Leon Rubenstein , who legally changed his name to Jack Leon Ruby in 1947, was convicted of the November 24, 1963 murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Ruby, who was originally from Chicago, Illinois, was then a nightclub operator in Dallas, Texas...
.
That Crull's role in the matter may somehow have seemed sinister to some has also been fueled by innuendo. His years of service to Dallas and his newspaper career had brought him into intimate contact with the Who's Who in Texas politics, from Lyndon Baines Johnson to Sam Rayburn
Sam Rayburn
Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn , often called "Mr. Sam," or "Mr. Democrat," was a Democratic lawmaker from Bonham, Texas, who served as the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for seventeen years, the longest tenure in U.S. history.- Background :Rayburn was born in Roane County, Tennessee, and...
. Big oil's proponents, such as H.L. Hunt, Neil Mallon, John W. Mecom, Sr.
John W. Mecom, Sr.
John W. Mecom Sr was an American businessman.John Whitfield Mecom Sr found success as an independent oilman by acquiring abandoned oil wells and then making them profitable. He also developed new fields from Louisiana to Saudi Arabia.He was once ranked as one of the top oil independents; however,...
, and Clint Murchison to name a few, would have been among Crull's acquaintances and friends. The fact that his old mentor, James W. Aston, who was Chairman of the Board of Texas's largest bank, Republic National Bank, hired him to become an executive of that bank in 1966 only heightens the speculation because of that bank's connections and board of directors. For example, the Bruce Campbell Adamson books depict the bank and its building as being a beehive of CIA activity. Having served at the Pentagon
Pentagon
In geometry, a pentagon is any five-sided polygon. A pentagon may be simple or self-intersecting. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagram is an example of a self-intersecting pentagon.- Regular pentagons :In a regular pentagon, all sides are equal in length and...
also does not curb the innuendos about Crull for enough blogs have described him as not only having been a well-connected person but also as one having been a part of the American intelligence apparatus.
Looking at Crull through prisms of innuendo and speculation can paint him as possibly having been a heavy. This also occurs for Earle Cabell
Earle Cabell
Earle Cabell , was a Texas politician who served as mayor of Dallas, Texas. Cabell was mayor at the time of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and was later a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was son of Dallas mayor Ben E. Cabell and grandson of Dallas mayor William L. Cabell...
, Dallas's mayor at the time. His brother U.S. air Force General Charles P. Cabell
Charles P. Cabell
Charles Pearre Cabell was an United States Air Force General and deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency.-Early life:...
had been Deputy Director of the CIA until Kennedy had forced him to resign in the wake of the Bay of Pigs Invasion
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months...
fiasco. Conspiracy theorists have suggested that Earle Cabell, and even possibly Crull, had rerouted JFK's motorcade. Researchers, however, have debunked this theory; likewise, testimonies from varied sources have evinced that Crull did not set up Ostwald. The manner of moving Ostwald had been conducted to show the public that he had not been mistreated or subject to "gestapo" tactics. It was a procedural matter which Crull had delegated to the police department in his efficient manner which allowed him to make his weekend trip to his boat. Later, when Ostwald had been shot, and Ruby had been jailed, Waggoner Carr
Waggoner Carr
Vincent Waggoner Carr was a Democratic Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives and Attorney General of Texas.-Early years, education, military service:...
, the Texas Attorney General, and the local district attorney had wanted to open hearings on the JFK, Ostwald, and Ruby deaths. Crull realized that these might become circuses and that evidence might be compromised. It was by chance that he ran into his old friend FBI Special Agent Vincent Drain who suggested that all the evidence be turned over to the FBI and taken to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, so that it could be preserved. Given his efficient nature, Crull saw this as the solution to avoiding the potential problems that local hearings could create.Conspiracy theorists might say that Drain, too, may be suspect since his father-in-law had founded Ashland Oil.
Obviously, if one wants to beat a dog, sticks can always be found; so, too, with conspiracy theories and JFK's death. Since it is inhumane to beat a dog, it is...regarding the rehashing of the story (ies) of JFK's death. If the outcomes of the Warren Commission
Warren Commission
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established on November 27, 1963, by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963...
satisfied JFK's brother, Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
, they, too, should have been satisfactory for everyone else.