FORMER COUNCILMAN OPERATED CIA FRONT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303520013-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: February 2, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303520013-6
~~ +Ri I C E APPEARED RICH14OND NEWS LEADER
ON PAGE
2 FEBRUARY 1982
Former coundllmah
operated. CA' Trost
By-ANDREW PETKOFSKY. run organizations that-posea as noun-. -wrote, .you pr111dN, 1IdYC IwL LdKell
During the late 1950s and into 1960, dations in order to pay students and sufficiently into account the fact that.
one member of Richmond City Coun-, scholars to collect intelligence abroad. as a practicing lawyer whose career
cif augmented his'f.public: duties by+ has been temporarily interrupted at
working for the Central Intelligence '--WORKSHOP FOR AGENTS least from a financial standpoint, your
Agency_ Lawler said CIA officials also pert- status is considerably different from
John Edward Lawler, '-a former:-- odically used the Old Dominion office many other fellowship grantees sent
agent of the Federal Bureau of Inves- - and the streets of Richmond - as a abroad under Fulbright or other pro-'
tigation who- became an immenselyk' workshop for training agents in spying grams... it is our desire'that your
popular councilman, says he had been; -V and other undercover techniques. financial position will enable you to
quietly associated with' the CIA. fon-Ali' .- The CIA, for its part; has declined to entertain people at your home or else-
some time when,he took his seat on-'rsay whether the operations- in Rich- where.'. .
council in 1956.. mond existed. But the agency's re- A number of the-documents in the
He began accepting assignments : sponse to The Richmond News Lead- folder are letters from other founda-
from- the then-fledgling intelligence er's requests-under' the - federal tions or ' consulting firms . asking I
agency soon after he retired in 1950 as - Freedom-of-Information Act does not Lawler to sign letters and send them
special agent in charge of the Rich- contradict Lawler's limited recollec- on to whomever they are addressed-
mond FBI office. tions of his undercover work. Although Lawler recalled -colorful
As he sataf' a glass table on the anecdotes .about his crime-and-com-
PHONY RESEARCH FIRM - f ' glassed-in porch behind his house, munist-fighting days in the FBI
One of Lawler's CIA jobs was run- Lawler, now 73; was not eager to dis- (where he was an administrative as-
Ming a phony research organization in ?~ cuss the details of his CIA service or sistant to J. Edgar Hoover for several
Richmond that-served as a front fora the history of Old Dominion. Research. years) and his years on City Courcil
CIA training and payroll operation. He . He had. agreed to an interview as a (where the garnered more votes than
continued that task during his;tenure necessary consequence of having do- any otner candidate in one campaign).
nated a large collection of ersonal he maintained that he never knew
i on council and after he stepped down p much about what went on in Old Do-
in 1960. -.'papers end documents to the Vi m
rginia.
"I did it as a patriotic' citizen," he Commonwealth University library. minion Research's offices.
said in an interview at his home on li hat he did know, he insisted, he
Riverside Drive in South #tichmond. -APPLICATIONS FOR. GRANTS Since has forgotten.
If Old Dominion Research Co. (later.' The collection, comprising 102 fold-
ers and filling five cubic-foot cartons, 'VANISHES IN. TIME
the Old Dominion Research Fund) was `
me;' Lawler
a creation of the-CIA, it was by no - -includes one folder of documents con- "said It jwithustanvaniairhes es in tifinalit
means -unique. Dozens of. foundations cerning the CIA front company.' Most y
and non-profit organizations that used_ of the papers in the folder are applica- . Nonetheless, in two interviews
flops for overseas research grants or
diplomats more than a year apart, Lauver
tax ?mats to
s reporters seeppoorrte;ters to o gath=; scholam,
and d news pay
gath. letters from Lawler approving re not leave the impression that he is a
er information.for'the spy agency- search projects - in Europe and. the forgetful man. Short and trim. white- j
were identified in articles and govern- Middle Easthaired and dressed on the second visit
rnent investigations in the-mid-1960s. ` If they were not identified as CIA . in sporty clothing accented wits pow_
Although the Old Dominion organi= documents by Lawler and in the table . der blue socks and white patent :each-
zation never was exposed as. a CIA- of contents prepared by the VCU li: er shoes, Lawler appeared to be
front, it fits the pattern of other CIA; brary staff -- and'-by the inclusion in friendly, good-humored, sharp-witted
the same folder oFa mid-1960s news- and proud of the many turns his ca-
paper editorial commenting on then-:.tours as. a--law. enforcement. official;
.recent exposi}re of some foundations business executive and .lawyer had_
as CIA fronts - the precise nature of taken.
Lawler'S files wouldn't be obvious: Before he left for an afternoon of
Some of the documents rase ques- card-playing- at. the Commonwealth
tions, however. Club one 'recent-snowy -morning, he-
One 1959 letter from a George Can. showed off? an.,-extensive and neatly!
ron of the Hudson Research Society in CONS J1,
New York City advised Lawler that a
" f;evised purpose" had been chosen?for'
the organization..: . .
"We can call this a- , society, fund,
foundation, council, association, etc.,,
whichever you feel you can best sun
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303520013-6