BOSSI, The Rockefellers and the Men Who Killed Malcolm X

"Ehrlichman quickly found a candidate, a well-decorated, forty year-old Irish New York City cop, John J. Caulfield. Caulfield had been a member of the NYPD and its undercover unit, the Bureau of Special Services and Investigations (BOSSI). He had made cases against dissident and terrorist organizations, and BOSSI as a whole was known for its ability to penetrate and keep track of left-wing and black groups. One of the unit's jobs was to work closely with the Secret Service and guard political dignitaries and world leaders who frequently moved through the city. During the 1960 election, Caulfield had been assigned to the security detail of candidate Richard Nixon. He had befriended Nixon's personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, and her brother Joe, the sheriff of Cook County, Illinois. In 1968, after leaving the New York City Police Department, Caulfield had served as a security man for the Nixon campaign.

But when Ehrlichman approached him in early 1969 and asked Caulfield to set up a private security firm to provide services for the Nixon White House, Caulfield declined, and instead suggested that he join Ehrlichman's staff and then, as a White House employee, supervise another man who would be hired solely as a private eye. Ehrlichman agreed, and when Caulfield arrived at the White House to start work in April 1969, he said he had the ideal candidate for presidential gumshoe, a BOSSI colleague, Anthony Ulasewicz."

Anthony Ulasewicz, the son of Polish immigrants, was born in New York on 14th December, 1918. His father was a tailor in the garment industry. His mother, who was a janitor, died of viral pneumonia, when he was a boy.

Ulasewicz attended Stanislaus Parochial School and Peter Stuyvesant Public High School. In 1937 Ulasewicz joined the Army National Guard. He was stationed at the 168th Street Armory, in Manhattan.

On 17th February, 1943, Ulasewicz joined the New York City Police Department. He started off as a patrolman in Harlem's Twenty-Fifth Precinct. Later he served in the United States Army during the Second World War.

In 1949 Ulasewicz joined the NYPD's Bureau of Special Service and Investigation (BOSSI). His assignments included escorting and guarding the security of world leaders and their families. People who Ulasewicz protected included Paul Robeson, Dwight Eisenhower, Nikita Khrushchev, John F. Kennedy, Rafael Trujillo and Fulgencio Batista.

Ulasewicz's intelligence work included the investigating the kidnapping and murder of Jesus de Galindez, the academic who had written a book critical of the Trujillo's military dictatorship. Ulasewicz discovered the CIA had stolen documents belonging to Galindez soon after he went missing. Ulasewicz decided to back-off when he discovered that the CIA was probably involved in his abduction. However, J. Edgar Hoover insisted on a full investigation. Galindez had been a FBI undercover agent (codename “Rojas”) who had been providing important information to Hoover.

Recruited to the FBI in June, 1944, Galindez had originally been asked to discover information about Spaniards who had migrated to the Dominican Republic after the Spanish Civil War. Galindez role was to discover if any of these men were “communists” and who might get involved in the campaign to bring democracy to the Dominican Republic.

Galindez also provided Hoover with information on the rebels in Cuba. This included information that Fidel Castro was a communist agent. This was important news at the time because Hoover was aware that the CIA were at the time helping Castro in his struggle with Fulgencio Batista.

Ulasewicz eventually traced the two men who flew the drugged Galindez to Dominica. Both these pilots, Gerald Murphy and Octavia de la Maza were murdered soon after this had taken place. So also was Ana Gloria Viera (Maza’s girlfriend) who was also on board the plane that night. Murphy, a young American pilot, had the contact details of man called John Frank in his possession when his body was found. Frank had been working with Robert Maheu. At the time it was believed that Frank and Maheu were involved in some CIA operation. It included a deal that involved the future of Batista’s gambling empire in Cuba and the training of CIA operatives in the Dominican Republic.

(2) (2)Tony Ulasewicz, The President's Private Eye (1990)

Caulfield became Ehrlichman's contact with BOSSI, and through Ehrlichman, Caulfield met H. R. Haldeman, who would become Nixon's chief of staff after he was elected President. Both Ehrlichman and Haldeman were impressed with BOSSI's thoroughness in handling security, and at Ehrlichman's prodding, Haldeman persuaded the Police Commissioner to let Caulfield become head of Nixon's campaign security detail. Caulfield's assignment was classified as detached departmental service. Almost immediately after his appointment, Caulfield called to ask me to join Nixon's campaign train, but I turned him down. The job simply held no challenge for me. In my mind a campaign security assignment would mean nothing more than a lot of glitz and tinsel draped over a lot of travel, talk, and parties and too little sleep.

(2) (2)Tony Ulasewicz, The President's Private Eye (1990)

Caulfield became Ehrlichman's contact with BOSSI, and through Ehrlichman, Caulfield met H. R. Haldeman, who would become Nixon's chief of staff after he was elected President. Both Ehrlichman and Haldeman were impressed with BOSSI's thoroughness in handling security, and at Ehrlichman's prodding, Haldeman persuaded the Police Commissioner to let Caulfield become head of Nixon's campaign security detail. Caulfield's assignment was classified as detached departmental service. Almost immediately after his appointment, Caulfield called to ask me to join Nixon's campaign train, but I turned him down. The job simply held no challenge for me. In my mind a campaign security assignment would mean nothing more than a lot of glitz and tinsel draped over a lot of travel, talk, and parties and too little sleep.

In March 1969, after Nixon had won and taken office, Caulfield again approached me about a possible assignment. It wasn't going to be what I thought, Caulfield said; it would be so different in fact that he couldn't talk about it over the phone. This time I was a bit more receptive, having in the last few weeks begun to think about retiring. In 1969, at age fifty-one, I was only seven years away from retirement on a full police pension, but setting myself up in business as a private investigator had begun to interest me. An affiliation with the White House would surely benefit the future of my own operation, and so I was ready to hear Caulfield out. We met at the Hofbrau, a bar and restaurant near 42nd Street which had long been a hangout for both New York's cops and reporters for the Daily News.

I hadn't seen Caulfield in over a year, and in an instant I could see that he had already become a tout for all the power that makes Washington move. He was just bursting with his news that he had found the Yellow Brick Road and was going to make a million bucks as a lobbyist when he finished working for Nixon. "The lobbyists in Washington run the whole show," he said. But I wasn't interested in his ambitions; all I wanted to know was what was so hush-hush that he couldn't tell me about it over the phone.

Over a few drinks, Caulfield outlined the big secret. He said the White House wanted to set up its own investigative resource which would be quite separate from the FBI, CIA, or Secret Service.