Edwin Walker

Edwin Walker

Major General Edwin Anderson Walker, sometimes known as Ted Walker (November 10, 1909 – October 31, 1993), was a United States Army officer who fought in World War II and the Korean War, reaching the rank of Major General. He was known for his ultra-conservative political views and was criticized by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower for promoting a personal political stand while in uniform. Walker resigned his commission in 1959, but Eisenhower denied his resignation and gave Walker a new command over the 24th Infantry Division in Augsburg, Germany. Walker again resigned his commission in 1961 after being publicly and formally admonished by President John F. Kennedy (JFK) for publicly calling Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman "pink" in print, and for violating the Hatch Act by attempting to direct the votes of his troops. JFK accepted his resignation. In early 1962 Walker ran for the office of Texas Governor, and lost to John Connally. In late 1962 Walker was arrested for leading riots at Ole Miss University in protest against admitting a black student, James Meredith, into an all-white college. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) committed Walker to an insane asylum for a 90-day evaluation in response to the riots, but psychiatrist Thomas Szasz protested political psychiatry and got Walker released in five days. Attorney Robert Morris convinced a Mississippi Grand Jury to acquit Walker of all charges. Walker was an attempted assassination target of Lee Harvey Oswald on April 10, 1963. From the period of the JFK assassination forward, General Walker wrote and spoke publicly about his belief that there were two assassins at his "April Crime", the same assassin who killed JFK, and another one never found, but probably hired by RFK.