Distinctly Montana Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.distinctlymontana.com/i/1507075
75 w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m then again from 1943 to 1952, he oversaw the Butte Field Office. His post-FBI career was spotty; he was hired by the New Orleans Police Department, but fired when he drunkenly pulled a gun in a French Quarter bar. Always right-leaning, he became staunchly far-right, testifying that the integration of schools was a Commu- nist conspiracy. On the day of Kennedy's assassination, his like-minded secretary jumped up from her desk and shouted, "He's dead! He's dead! He's dead!" after hear- ing on the radio of the president's demise. He was evict- ed from his office in 1964, having been delinquent on his payments for over a year. Eventually he would run afoul of JFK assassination investigator Jim Garrison (that's Kevin Costner for you Oliver Stone's JFK heads out there), who would allege for decades, without much hard evidence, that Bannister was somehow a CIA contact, and not just a hard-drinking racist New Orleans private detective. Nevertheless, the promotion to Butte and to the position of SAC must have been for doing something good, right? Well, not exactly. According to an HSCA (United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassina- tions) interview with one of Bannister's associates, Bannister was only sent to Butte after Hoover had asked agents for a frank assessment of the FBI and its inner workings, and Ban- nister had apparently sent a memo from Chicago in which he called Hoover's Bureau a prostitute who wanted to keep her virginity. Off to Butte, then, with Agent Bannister. Sometimes, agents were sent to Butte for things even more capri- cious than that. In 1978, the New York Times quoted a Justice Depart- ment official as saying that the FBI officials who were sending agents away to Butte "are the guys who were ruining other guys' careers if they caught them cheating on their mile- age or drinking coffee on Government time." And yet, something about all of this doesn't quite jibe, does it? Those of us who know Butte know it's a beautiful, even regal city, surrounded by beau-