I need to verify the following:
1)That in 1947 (and prior) there existed within the United States
Treasury Department a branch called the "Special Services Division"
and that
2) In 1947 the Director of the USTDSSD was Charles H Moran.
I know that William H Moran was a former Chief of the US Secret
Service and was hoping to find a geneaological link between the two
(nepotism in the government?) but was not able to.
The above information has to do with some research I am doing on my
grandfather, an undercover agent back in the 20's-40's. I am the last
of my family now and research has been difficult. Any help would be
greatly appreciated!
Thank you. |
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
20 Dec 2004 16:13 PST
I found reference in a newspaper article for a "Special Services
Division" of the IRS in the 1970's, though it may well have existed
for many decades prior to that time.
IRS is part of Treasury. Any chance this is it...?
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Clarification of Question by
thebigp-ga
on
20 Dec 2004 16:40 PST
No, not the IRS branch. On the letterhead of a document I have, says
"Personal Correspondence With Chas. H. Moran, Director, USTDSSD, Chevy
Chase, MD, and from another document it spelled out "Chas. H Moran,
Director, United States Treasury Department, Special Services Division
and includes also the US Army and doctors from Walter Reed and the
Navy. At no time has the IRS come up in my research.
Hope this helps. Please advise if I can clarify further.
Thank you.
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Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
20 Dec 2004 16:51 PST
Hmm...when I was looking earlier, I did see reference in the 1940's to
a Special Services Div in the Army, but didn't pay much attention to
it since I was focusing on Treasury.
What do you think the link between the SSD, Army and Treasury was?
Any chance you could scan in a copy of the correspondence and post it
to a link where I could have a look at it...?
It might be a big help.
paf
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Clarification of Question by
thebigp-ga
on
20 Dec 2004 17:15 PST
Now that I think about it, I can't say for sure if it was / wasn't
associated with the IRS but it has not come up as IRS.
I have posted the cover page of my grandfathers last MIB report. I
have covered his name only, for personal reasons.
This is not the letterhead document, but it has the same information
as the scanned picture at
http://unklerichie.home.att.net/mibcoverinvert22.jpg
Hope this helps some more.
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Clarification of Question by
thebigp-ga
on
20 Dec 2004 19:37 PST
Maybe this will help. It's part of a post I put on a few newsgroups
months ago with no luck.
_______________________________________________________________________________
I am doing some research on my grandfather and I am writing to you in
the hopes of some direction if not an answer. I will try to give you
some background information as succinctly as I can. Please bear with
me...
My mother died a few years ago and in the process of cleaning through
her things, I came upon a letter that has raised many questions
concerning my grandfather. I am the last of my family now so all my
research has been difficult (three years now). The letter is 14 pages
(typed). It was delivered to my mother and (who I always thought was)
my grandmother by a military courier May 20th 1948. The letter is
typed on pre-printed letterhead that reads "Personal Correspondence
with Chas H. Moran, Director, USTDSSD, Chevy Chase, Maryland. (I know
that this is the US Treasury Department, Special Services Division.)
The letter begins with apologies for the hardships put on my family (I
was a child then) because of the nature of gramps' service. Mr. Moran
explains some of gramps' history, from working with Generals Funston,
Holmes, Haig, and Pershing to his undercover work for the Treasury
Department. From what is included in the letter, gramps began his
military career in 1914 at Fort Bliss in the Mexican Campaign. In
1919 he was made Colonel under General Pershing and was Pershing's
Asst. Chief of Intelligence. He was released to the Treasury
Department in 1919 where he worked undercover until 1945(?). The
letter explains that at the time Mr. Moran wrote this letter, my
gramps was undergoing a medical inspection at Walter Reed and was not
expected to return to service. This is the reason given for the
timing of the letter, that gramps health would not permit him to
continue. In his service to the Treasury Department, he was
undercover dealing with narcotics, opiates, aphrodisiacs, white
slavery and rum running. Mr. Moran wrote that gramps' actions broke
up such gangs as Joe Mizer, Dutch Schultz and Frankie Medina. Mr.
Moran also writes that it was gramps that walked into the Chicago
headquarters of Bugs Moran and "wrecked the place and all in it." The
letter also speaks of Sacco-Vanzetti, the Rothschild gang, Luciano and
more. Also cited are citations from presidents Wilson, Cooledge,
Harding, Hoover, commendations from King George VIII and King Albert.
More than anything, this letter reads as a warning. (As I child I
remember the strangers that were around my childhood home and the
letter says they were protection for me and my family. We never knew
why and no one asked.) When my grandfather died, no one went to
claim his ashes. I can only imagine that my family was too scared.
There is so much more in this letter, but I will leave you with this
information and hope you can assist me.
After three years+ of (mostly) fruitless research, I have gone back to
square one. So here's my question: How can I verify any of this? I
have tried all the common routes, NARA, NPRC, FOIA military and
everywhere else listed on the internet. I have spoken to many
government agencies by mail, email and telephone. I haven't made much
progress which is why I'm starting over: is this letter even real is
my question now. (I have no reason to think it is not.) Mr. Moran
recommended that it be destroyed after my grandmother read it, but
here it is, raising so many questions about a man that spent his life
in service to this country, even forsaking his family for our
protection (Mr. Moran explained that the reason that gramps never
married my grandmother was because (quote) "three months after Gramp
left Miami he could have returned, Mose had burned all the records
except one and it was that one that we could not find that worried us
all these years. It was trivial but dangerous for it was in the hands
of the bonding people and they check every marriage license in the
country for leads. Now you know the truth about it so blame me.")
If you can assist me in any way I would be most appreciative. If you
feel like you need more info or something specific, please email me
and I will do my best to answer you, but most of the information I
have is from this letter.
________________________________________________________________________________
Thanks for looking Google Researchers!
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
20 Dec 2004 20:10 PST
Whew...that sounds like quite a tale!
From what I can tell, it seems you're really after information about
your grandfather, more so than info on the USTDSSD of Mr. Moran.
But for that, we would need to know his full name!
Otherwise, it's usually possible to obtain some sort of information
from requests for military service records and FOIA requests (from, I
would think, Treasury, the Army, FBI, and perhaps a few others!).
Have these all turned up nil...????
Let us know what you can, and we'll see what we can do.
pafalafa-ga
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Clarification of Question by
thebigp-ga
on
21 Dec 2004 05:20 PST
back to the original question about mr. moran.....my goal was to not
place my grandfather's name in the public arena for public scrutiny
but, rather to verify the letter's author and his position.
i have checked nara, nrpc, army, secret service, fbi and the treasury
dept. i have even sent the full mib report of my grandfather to the
treasury dept. researcher and have never heard a word back. i have
gotten the ususal forms in return...this was burned, that was
burned....there has to be other sources to find out who this moran man
was. please go to the following link to read the full 1948 mib report
releasing my grandfather from service.
http://unklerichie.home.att.net/gramps1948mib.htm
while the title page includes the army and treasury dept., there is
reference to a navy doctor within the text. maybe some of the info in
this report will suggest a less conventional way of researching the
above.....it's going to take some creativity because, as the letter
described, it appears that the government went to great lengths to
create another identity and life for my grandfather.
this does not sound like a joke to me and i know my family took this
pretty seriously to have not placed a family member with family. mr.
moran was offering to take care of him for the rest of his life if we
wouldn't. i remember meeting him once for a very short time when i
was a rather young child....that's all i know of my grandfather. this
all goes back to the original question....who is mr. chas. h. moran,
director, ustdssd?
thanks for trying.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
journalist-ga
on
21 Dec 2004 09:50 PST
Greetings Thebigp,
I've a book in my library titled "Treasury Agent - The Inside Story"
by Andrew Tully (Simon and Shuster, 1958, 2nd printing - forward by
Robert B. Anderson, Secretary of the Treasury) The book jacket goes
on to read "The most exciting crime stories of the century taken from
the closed files of the Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of
Narcotics, The Bureau of Customs and the Secret Service" - the inside
flap describes the agents as "T-men"
I looked in the index for references to the names you mentioned and
found only the following:
Dutch Schultz (3 references)
Lucky Luciano (12 references)
The book also has an Appendix of agents who died in the performance of
duty including the place and date they died.
Here's a link to purchase it (if the company still has it - I believe it's OOP)
http://www.freeglobalbooksearch.com/cgi-bin/fgb455/271.html or, if
there is a way for you to give me any more names/incidents/criminals
w/o directly revealing your grandfather's name, I can scan the index
for them.
I don't know that its contents might offer you any more clues but
wanted you to be aware of its existence. It might help you in your
quest.
Best regards,
journalist-ga
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Request for Question Clarification by
journalist-ga
on
21 Dec 2004 09:58 PST
PS There is also a chapter on the Lindbergh case, and numerous
references on Narcotics.
Best regards,
journalist-ga
|
Request for Question Clarification by
journalist-ga
on
21 Dec 2004 10:14 PST
Here's something that may prove interesting. Searching Department of
the Treasury with SSD brings up "Secret Services Division" (SSD) as
well as
"49.3.15 Records of Division "P" (Timber Depredations and Special
Services Division) History: Timber Division, responsible for timber
trespass cases, in existence by 1859. Earliest reference to Division
"P" is as Timber Depredations Division, 1880, and Special Services
Division, 1884. Designated as Field Service Division, April 24, 1907.
Protected the public lands from unlawful entry or appropriation and
from timber and other trespasses. Supervised work force of special
agents employed for that purpose. Prepared cases of violations for the
Justice Department. Had charge of all matters relating to timber on
unreserved public lands. Consolidated with GLO field force as Division
"FS," March 3, 1913. (SEE 49.3.17)."
Records of the Bureau of Land Management [BLM] (Record Group 49)
1685-1993 (bulk 1770-1982)
http://archives.gov/research_room/federal_records_guide/bureau_of_land_management_rg049.html#49.3.15
I realize I am grabbing at straws, yet I wanted to share the info in
case your grandfather was assigned to one division/section but,
instead, was "borrowed" to work for another division/section.
Best regards,
journalist-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
thebigp-ga
on
21 Dec 2004 10:31 PST
thanks for the scoop. i have just ordered the first edition of same.
there was no mention of timber matters anywhere...i've tried that one.
everything had to do with narcotics, rum-running, white slavery and
organized crime.
thanks for the book scoop...i'll add it to my growing collection of
"who the hell is my grandfather" books. i'll let you know if
something jives with anything.
thanks....p
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Request for Question Clarification by
journalist-ga
on
21 Dec 2004 10:44 PST
You are most welcome! The more I read of your mystery, the more I
think, "What a terrific screenplay this might make." : )
Best regards,
journalist-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
thebigp-ga
on
21 Dec 2004 14:31 PST
Those are the same words Mr Moran used in the letter describing my
grandfather's life. He said his life read like a novel.
Thanks for your efforts, journalist-ga, and I look forward to reading
the book you mentioned.
p.
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