RARA-AVIS: Hugh C McDonald

From: M Blumenthal ( blumenidiot@21stcentury.net)
Date: 31 Dec 2001


A couple of months ago I asked if anyone on the list knew anything about Hugh C. MacDonald. I thought the name was a pseudonym, but some of the information about his setting up an underground organization in the USSR and working for the CIA may be true. He now reminds me of one of Ellroy's characters in The Big Nowhere. I received an email about him from Bill Code who had come across my question in the Rara Avis archives. I received his permission to forward his reply to the list. While Hugh seems marginally hard boiled in the books I read (all the clearly non fiction books below), he did have a police background. Bill is now thinking about using his show business connections to explore making a movie about Hugh. I thought Bill's reply may be of interest(My additions are in brackets):

----- As far as I know, Hugh C. McDonald authored 5[6] mainstream novels. 2 of them are JFK Conspiracy based, and (in my opinion) ultimately caused his literary downfall.

- Appointment in Dallas: the final solution to the Assassination of JFK
   This book was written by HCMc and Geoffrey Bocca
- LBJ and the JFK Conspiracy
   Written with Robin Moore (of Green Beret fame)
- Black Sea Caper (also written with Robin Moore)
- The Blue Fox [The Hour of the Blue Fox]
- Letter from Kiev
[Also Five Signs from Ruby]

He also wrote Police texts...
- The Investigation of Sex Crimes
- The Classification of Police Photographs
- The Psychology of Police Interrogation

Unfortunately I haven't met the man, and because he passed away in the 80's of a heart attack, if looks like I'll never get the chance. I assume that the Blue Wolf (or Fox as it was published) stories died with him. I got interested in him quite by accident. Honestly, I am more interested in a friend of his named Herman Kimsey. Nonetheless, I have briefly spoken with Hugh's son, Hugh Jr., some years ago, where his was Chief of Detectives at the Peter Pitchess Honour Division in LA. I also have briefly corresponded with Robin Moore, who is currently (I hope) filling in some blanks about him and Kimsey.

What I do know about Hugh C. McDonald is this:
- He was born in 1913
- In February 1967 he retired as Chief of Detectives, LA County Sheriff's Department
- 1964 he was hired as Chief of security for Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign
- In 1946-1954 he was 2nd in Command of the Forth McArthur Military Intelligence School, California
- On June 7, 1961 he gratuated from the FBI National Academy
- He was a Major in Military Intelligence between May 9, 1952 to May 9, 1957.

In Appointment in Dallas, McDonald dedicates a good part of the book to Blue Fox and Vozrodenya. [The Soviet controlled island he supposedly researched for the CIA] He indicates in the writing that it is actually non-fictional and he has (had) friends in Blue Fox.... as a matter of fact, he indicates that he was a "Founder." Would you like me to dig into Blue Fox a bit? Might be interesting.

If you take this text as truth, then it would seem that his knowledge gained was first hand....

I have some other references from the National Archives that I will look up and let you know.

--
Bill Code
1294 Gladstone Avenue,
Victoria, BC Canada V8T 1G5
Ph: 250-380-9355








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