| Download Photo 1 | Richard H. | Ash | CA - San Francisco; WA - Seattle; NY - New York; MO - Kansas city; FBIHQ; MN - Minneapolis; NY - Buffalo | 1948 - 1977 | MIBURN, BAPBOMB, Smith kidnapping, Ebersole kidnapping, COINTELPRO, Mississippi Burning | Communist Party, Civil Rights, Organized Crime, J. Edgar Hoover | For the FBI Oral History Heritage Project sponsored by the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, Inc., which holds the copyright to the material.
Special Agent Ash served in the FBI from 1948 to 1977. This interview took place on March 30 and July 15, 2004. Interviewed by Stanley A. Pimentel.
After serving in the US Army in World War II and finishing college, SA Ash was recruited by the FBI. His first office was the San Francisco Field Office , then the Seattle Field Office,and the Richland, WA Resident Agency (RA), where there was an atomic energy facility.
His next office was New York Field Office on a security squad investigating Smith Act subjects, i.e., Community party – USA leadership sujects and Communist Front organizations. His next assignment was the Kansas City, MO office where he had some interesting cases involving organized crime. He mentions the new interview reporting form – the FD-302 – and its use in a case. An extortion case led to the use of criminal profiling, he believes, for the first time. Letters sent demanding money were sent to the psychologists at the famous Meninger Clinic for their opinion.
In 1962, SA Ash transferred to FBIHQ working the selective service desk. He then was a new Agents Class Counselor until he was assigned a supervisory role in the Civil Rights section. The newly passed Civil Rights Act of 1964 included work such as Public Accommodation complaints as well as MIBURN (three murdered civil rights workers in Mississippi) and BAPBOMB (the deadly church bombing in Birmingham AL).
He left FBIHQ to become the ASAC in Minneapolis Field Office. The New Left was the main focus there and Ash describes a tense arrest situation. Transferred back to FBIHQ as an Inspector, SA Ash then became SAC in the Buffalo Field Office, which had many organized crime cases.
A month later, J. Edgar Hoover died and a series of changes swept the Bureau. SA Ash speaks of these at some length (with supporting documents in the Addenda).
Still in Buffalo, SA Ash describes the Smith kidnapping, the Ebersole kidnapping, and Richard Genova’s undercover work against organized crime. His comments on undercover work are very knowledgeable.
In 1975, SA Ash was transferred back to FBIHQ as Assistant Director for the Identification Division. One chore during his tenure was to move the entire department into the new Hoover Building, which was accomplished in one night. SA Ash details some special assignments he worked on under the direct orders of Director Kelley concerning the internal affairs of the Bureau. Another task was to study a possible merger of the FBI with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). He briefly touches on COINTELPRO and the Church and Pike Congressional Committees. | Download PDF 1 | Download PDF 2 | |