Fred Crisman

Fred Lee Crisman (July 22, 1919 – December 10, 1975) was a fighter pilot and later educator from Tacoma, Washington known for claims of paranormal events and ties to 20th century conspiracies.

In 1946, Crisman claimed to have battled with non-humans in caves during the second World War. The following year, he attempted to convince two early flying saucer witnesses that lava rocks were in fact debris dropped from a flying saucer. In 1968, Crisman was subpoenaed by a New Orleans grand jury in the prosecution of a local man for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy—a prosecution that would later be dramatized in 1991 Oliver Stone film JFK.

Conspiracy authors consider Crisman "a nexus point for a number of conspiracies and cover-ups from the late 1940s until isdeath in 1975".

Early life

Crisman was born on July 22, 1919, the only child of Fred Crisman and Eva Pitchers, both of Iowa. In 1933, he and his family moved to Vale, Oregon; His father ran a hotel there. In 1939, Crisman graduated from Vale Union High School.
After briefly attending Eastern Oregon College for a time during 1939–40, Crisman left to work as a brakeman for the Union Pacific Railroad.

Military career

On May 26, 1942, Crisman enlisted in the army, serving as a fighter pilot in the Pacific theater. Crisman reportedly flew 211 combat missions. He was wounded twice, and he was shot down on two occasions. Crisman left the Army Air Force on February 19, 1946.

Relationship with Ray Palmer and ''Amazing Stories''

In 1946–47, pulp magazine ''Amazing Stories'' was an outlet for fantasy, science-fiction, and fringe claims. The May 1946 issue, for example, included purportedly-true fringe adventures by Richard Sharpe Shaver, the fiction of Dorothy & John de Courcy written in the style of Shaver, a defense of the religions of Tibet by Millen Cooke, the fiction of Robert Moore Williams, an allegedly-true eyewitness account of unidentified objects in the skies by Dirk Wylie, and other genre-blurring texts.

Promotion of the Shaver mystery

In June 1946, ''Amazing Story'' published a pseudonymous letter by Crisman in which he claimed to have battled "mysterious and evil" underground creatures to free himself from a cave in Burma during World War II.
Wrote Crisman:

I flew my last combat mission on May 26 945when I was shot up over Bassein and ditched my ship in Ramaree Roads off Chedubs Island. I was missing five days. I requested leave at Kashmere. I and Capt. (deleted by request) left Srinagar and went to Rudok then through the Khesa pass to the northern foothills of the Kabakoram. We found what we were looking for. We knew what we were searching for.
For heaven's sake, drop the whole thing! You are playing with dynamite. My companion and I fought our way out of a cave with submachine guns. I have two 9" scars on my left arm that came from wounds given me in the cave when I was 50 feet from a moving object of any kind and in perfect silence. The muscles were nearly ripped out. How? I don't know. My friend has a hole the size of a dime in his right bicep. It was seared inside. How we don't know. But we both believe we know more about the Shaver Mystery than any other pair.
You can imagine my fright when I picked up my first copy of Amazing Stories and see you splashing words about the subject.
Do not print our names, we are not cowards, but we are not crazy.LeFevre & Lipson

The letter was quoted in the September 1946 issue of Harper's Magazine as an example of a crackpot letter. In May 1947, ''Amazing Stories'' published a second Crisman letter, this time identifying him by name. In this letter, Crisman claimed to have traveled to Alaska with his friend Dick, who was killed there.

Role in Maury Island incident

In 1947, Crisman was involved with Harold Dahl in the Maury Island incident, an early UFO incident widely considered to be a hoax, even within Ufology. Dahl believed the 1960s TV series, ''The Invaders'' was based on Crisman's life.

In the January 1950 issue of Fate Magazine, Crisman insisted the incident was not a hoax. Wrote Crisman: "Why, if we were such blackguards and deliberately caused the deaths of two Air Force Pilots and the loss of a $150,000 airplane did not the government or some agency there attempt to seek justice through the courts of the state and federal government".

On July 22, 1967, Crisman spoke at a UFO convention in Seattle about the Maury Island incident.

Student at La Granda and Willamette

In Fall 1947, Crisman participated in college community theater in La Grande. In April 1949, Crisman was listed as acting public relations officer of Oregon's first chapter of AMVETS. In summer 1949, Crisman gave talk on "The Far East" to a Kiwanis Club.
In February 1950, a letter by Crisman was entered into the congressional record. Crisman "China has fallen to the Reds ..Indo-china is on the verge and will go soon." Crisman continued "It makes me md to see it all go, while people I though were in the 'know' grovel and back up before a gang of international brigands whose only difference from the Nazis is the cut of their uniforms. I no longer think the people guiding our state department know just what they are doing...".

Return to active duty, teaching career

In September 1950, Crisman was a Willamette university student. In October 1950, he wrote a letter to the editor complaining about the inability of local barbers of giving a military trim. In 1951, while studying at Willamette University, Crisman received a teaching assignment at Salem High.

Amid the Korean war, in April 1951, it was reported that Crisman had been ordered to Active Duty. That conflict ended in July 1953.

In 1953, he returned to teaching in Elgin, Oregon. He worked as a teacher and administrator in high schools in Washington and Oregon.

In December 1953, Crisman served as director of the high school drama club. In 1955, Crisman accepted a job as superintendent at Huntington.

In 1964, Crisman began teaching in the Turner school district, and it was reported his book on "Industrial Recruiting" had been accepted for publication. In April 1965, his post was listed as journalism teacher. On February 21, 1966, Crisman was suspended and later dismissed from his teaching position at Cascade High on a charge of insubordination and "creating a secret society". The board added that "the organization is of such a nature that should not be condoned or authorized to exist in this district." District officials said the society had been limited to five students, and officials declined to disclose the nature of the organization.

In 1966, an FBI informant claimed that Crisman had transported $100,000 in cash to California, was doing business as a psychologist, and was suspected of operating a diploma mill.

In 1968, Crisman authored a pamphlet denouncing sensitivity training as "Communist-oriented" brainwashing. Crisman's pamphlet called for widespread infiltration and disruption of civic organizations like Parent-Teacher Associations. Wrote Crisman:
:"You must take a page from the Communist Manifesto... You must learn to halt the elections at P-TA units. Do not stop with school organizations, infiltrate each garden club, suborn its social policy and convert it to an agit-prop group."

Role in the Clay Shaw trial

On October 31, 1968, a grand jury in New Orleans issued a subpoena for Fred Lee Crisman in connection with the investigation into the John F. Kennedy assassination. District attorney Jim Garrison issued a press release writing:

Mr. Crisman has been engaged in undercover activity for a part of the industrial warfare complex for years. His cover is that of a "preacher" and a person "engaged in work to help gypsies."

Our information indicates that since the early 1960's he has made many trips to the New Orleans and Dallas areas in connection with his undercover work for that part of the warfare industry engaged in the manufacture of what is termed, in military language, a "hardware"—meaning those weapons sold to the U.S. government which are uniquely large and expensive.
Mr. Crisman is a "former" employee of the Boeing Aircraft Company in the sense that one defendant in the case is a "former" employee of Lockheed Aircraft Company in Los Angeles. In intelligence terminology this ordinarily means that the connection still exists but that the "former employee" has moved into an underground operation. More often than not a "bad record"or evidence indicating that he has been "fired" is prepared for the parent company to increase the disassociation between the two.

That same day, Crisman was arrested by Tacoma police for reckless driving.

On November 21, 1968, Crisman was deposed in the case against Clay Shaw. Controversial district attorney Jim Garrison claimed that Crisman was one of the "Three Tramps" arrested by Dallas police as well as being a Bishop of the Universal Life Church. Garrison theorized:

"I suggest the only reasonable conclusion is that he rismanwas (and probably is, if still around), an operative at a deep cover level in a long-range, clandestine, intelligence mission directly (in terms of our national intelligence paranoia) related to maintaining national security... Crisman emerges as an operative at a supervisory level ... acquired by the apparatus to carry out the menial jobs that are needed to push a current mission forward, a middle man—in the final analysis—between the mechanics who eliminate, and the handy men, who otherwise support a termination mission, on one hand, and the distant, far removed, deep submerged command level on the other."

Tacoma talk show and politics

Starting on August 1, 1968, Crisman hosted a radio talk show under the pseudonym "Jon Gold" on station KAYE. Crisman authored a book, ''The Murder of a City, Tacoma'' published in 1970 through Transistor Publishing Company. The book was described by reviewer Michael Sullivan as a "weird, politically slanted rant" that manages to "tie corruption in Tacoma to everything from communist infiltrators to the Kennedy assassination".

At his death, it was noted that Crisman was a graduate of Willamette University with degrees in political science, history, and education and psychology.

In 1970, Crisman was elected Vice-President of the Tacoma library board.

Final years

Beginning in 1970, a photocopied document called the "Torbitt Document" circulated among Kennedy assassination buffs claimed that Crisman was one of the "three tramps" allegedly employed by a secret government agency.

In 1973, Crisman resigned from the Tacoma Library Board of Directors.
Crisman unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Tacoma city council.In September 1974, Crisman was hospitalized for kidney failure. On April 12, 1975, Crisman married Mary Frances Borden.

In May 1975, True Magazine published a photo of Crisman, speculating he was one of the "three hobos" of JFK conspiracy lore. The November 1975 issue of Crawdaddy Magazine repeated this claim and further claimed, without evidence, that "Olympia police suspected rismanof narcotics activity in connection with a group called "Servants of Awareness".

Fred Crisman died on December 10, 1975.

Legacy

In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations reported that forensic anthropologists had analyzed and compared the photographs of the "three tramps" with those of Crisman, as well as with photographs of Watergate figures E. Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis, and two other men. According to the Committee, only Crisman resembled any of the tramps; but the same Committee determined that he was not in Dealey Plaza on the day of the assassination.

In 2022, an animated film titled "Fred Crisman and the Cave of the Space Nazis!" won Best Comedy at Gen Con Film Festival.

References

External links

Crisman's Grand Jury Testimony
in the Shaw JFK assassination case.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crisman, Fred
1919 births
1975 deaths
American conspiracy theorists
Maury Island incident
People associated with the assassination of John F. Kennedy
Shaver Mystery
Writers from Tacoma, Washington
United States Army personnel of World War II