JFK Files: Edwin Walker Was a Member of SESPA

The recently released tranche of documents on the John F. Kennedy assassination are not supposed to hold any key revelations about Lee Harvey Oswald’s involvement, but they do reveal a very interesting point about one key figure.

Edwin Walker was a World War II and Korean War vet known for his extreme and outspoken political opinions. He ran for governor of Texas and was arrested for inciting a riot during the first admission of a black student at the University of Mississippi.

A week before the JFK assassination, a then-unknown assailant attempted to shoot Walker in his home. Eventually it would be revealed that the attempted assailant was Lee Harvey Oswald.

Just prior to the JFK assassination, Walker was responsible for spreading “Wanted for Treason” leaflets with JFK’s photo around Dallas with members of the John Birch Society, which were published as an ad in the Texas Observer.

Walker resigned his Army post in 1961 after JFK ordered an investigation into Walker’s distribution of political material among the ranks—something that would violate the Hatch Act.

There’s not much information on Walker in the recently released files despite Walker being one of Oswald’s targets—except for one document.

That document is a letter from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) noting his membership in the Boston Scientists and Engineers for Social and Political Action (SESPA).

SESPA was a leftist organization comprised of scientists supporting civil rights and opposing the Vietnam War. Like many leftists groups of the period, it was investigated by the FBI.

Walker being a member of SESPA would be odd as he wasn’t a scientist, didn’t live in Boston, was ardently right-wing, and was not known for being against the war.

In general Walker was considered a “Forest Gump” character—somebody who regularly appeared at numerous important moments in history, but was also arrested multiple times for public lewdness in Dallas.