The Men on the Sixth Floor

THE MEN ON THE SIXTH FLOOR

Glen Sample

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Published by:

Glen Sample at Smashwords

Copyright (c) 2011 by Glen Sample

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All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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Acknowledgements

In the three years it took to research and compile this book, Mark and I came into contact with many individuals who were more than helpful in assisting us with our efforts. First and foremost, our understanding and ever-patient wives must be thanked for putting up with the many inconveniences related to this project. They not only allowed us our fantasy, but they encouraged it.

Larry Howard, R.B. Cutler and Robert Johnson from the former JFKAIC were most helpful. If it were not for these gentlemen we may never have found our man and the story he bore.

John Small – mild mannered reporter – was instrumental in getting to the truth and helping us lay it out.

Thanks too to the Hunter family who put up the whole team at their home more than once. Thanks also must be given to the many researchers, writers, reporters and witnesses that we had occasion to interview and consult with. The late Harold Norman was extremely helpful as well as Stephen Pegues, William Weston, Larry Hancock, Larry Chenault, Lyle Sardie and a host of others. But without the help of Lawrence Loy Factor, who, after living for 30 years in fear, decided that the time had finally come to tell his story – and Madeleine Brown, who helped us put that story into perspective – there would be no knowledge of the men on the sixth floor.

Glen Sample and Mark Collom

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CONTENTS

Preface

Foreward

Chapter 1 A Murder in Johnston County

Chapter 2 A Trip to Bonham, Texas

Chapter 3 A Little House in Dallas

Chapter 4 The Loy Factor Story

Chapter 5 The Factor Tapes

Chapter 6 The Second Interview

Chapter 7 The Factor Story Confirmed

Chapter 8 The Discovery of Mac Wallace

Chapter 9 The Strange Story of Gene Noblitt

Chapter 10 The Windows on the Sixth Floor

Chapter 11 The Dallas Revelation

Chapter 12 The Incredible Ms. Madeleine Brown

Chapter 13 The Estes Documents

Chapter 14 On the Trail of Wallace

Chapter 15 It’s Not What You Know

Chapter 16 A Closer Look at the Colonel

Chapter 17 The Man in the Horn-Rimmed Glasses

Chapter 18 Farewell Loy Factor

Chapter 19 The Guilty Men

Chapter 20 The Mac Wallace Fingerprint

Chapter 21 Conclusions

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Preface

If there’s anyone out there who thinks the following narrative isn’t being submitted to the public with a certain amount of trepidation on the part of its authors and editor, all I can say to you is think again.

And who can blame us? After over 30 years, countless books, television specials and motion pictures, first-person accounts and revelations, and more conspiracy theories and counter-theories and twists and turns than one could shake his Ovaltine Captain Midnight Decoder Ring at, you’d think there’s not much new that anyone might have to say about the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Yes, the events of November 22, 1963 were pivotal - to some, the moment the fatal shot was fired represents the single most significant event in American history, certainly of this century - and, yes, it seems that there were plenty of groups and individuals who might have had motive enough to engineer the execution of an American President, and the nerve to pull it off in broad daylight. The problem is, it seems we’ve heard it all before. The names may change, the motivation may alter, but the story remains basically the same.

So why do it? Why one more book about the Kennedy Assassination? What makes us think that anyone might be interested in yet one more spin on the same old story?

As for my personal involvement, that’s easy enough to answer. I was born less than six months before the death of Kennedy; I’ve read about his life, about the aura that seemed to surround the man during his brief time in the White House. I lived during his lifetime, yet because of a senseless act one Friday in Dallas, he is as distant a historical figure to me as Washington or Lincoln.

But beyond all that, the plain and simple truth is, this isn’t the same old story. Honest. As it turns out, this is a book about the Kennedy assassination, but the focus of our attention is upon two men you’ve likely never heard of before now.

One of these men is the late Loy Factor, whose only real goals in life were to be a good husband and father, to make a name for himself, and in so doing, make his wife and children proud of him. The other character in this drama is a hired killer, with strong political ties, whose life ended violently in 1971. This is the story of how circumstances led these men to play a role in the most shocking crime of the 20th century, and the tragic effects their participation had later for themselves, and others around them. It is a story that has taken a team of investigators - including the authors and editor - a great deal of time and energy to piece together, and yet could never have been told at all if not for the cooperation of the man who survived in silence for three decades.

It is entirely possible, of course, that those of us who have worked so long and hard on this project have been the victims of an incredible hoax. It is possible, but I personally doubt it. Too many pieces have fallen into place along the way for any of us to discount the truth of the tale. Besides, this remarkable man stuck to his story, right up to his death, in May of 1994. There is very little reason for the subject of this story to have lied about the events in question. He had little to gain from stepping forward; and in his last years of declining health, he had little to lose as well. It seems unlikely, then, that this story is anything other than the truth this witness proclaimed it to be. I admit, however, that it is also unlikely everyone will believe this story at first. That much seems inevitable. Speaking simply from my own vantage point as editor, and on behalf of the authors and those who have participated in the investigation, all I can ask is that you read the story. Carefully. More than once, if need be. If, after you’ve done so, you still do not believe, so be it. We have done what we set out to do; the rest is up to you.

John A. Small

Project Editor

(An award-winning reporter and columnist, John A. Small is currently the Managing Editor of the Durant Daily Democrat, a newspaper headquartered in Durant, Oklahoma. His articles concerning the investigation into Loy Factor and his alleged ties to the Kennedy assassination earned him an award for investigative reporting from the Oklahoma Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists in 1995.)

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Foreward

What I’m going to tell you may be hard to believe, but I am going to tell you exactly as he told me.

These were the words of Mark Collom in January, 1992, when I received his first phone call about a man named Loy Factor. The call was one of many that I received after the movie JFK premiered, but this call was different than most.

As Director and President of the JFK Assassination Information Center in Dallas, I have received literally thousands of calls from people of all kinds, from all over the world. Many of these calls over the past eleven years have been based on hearsay, or just plain false information. Not this one.

By the time our conversation was over, I assured Mark that I would check out his story. And check it out I did. His leads took me to Oklahoma, where the main character of this investigation once lived. Everything that I was able to find out about Loy Factor’s background supported Mark’s story to the smallest detail, eventually leading me to an interview with this remarkable character.

During our interview, I came to a startling conclusion: this man knows what he is talking about! His descriptions of people, places, and things related to the assassination and the scene of the assassination, ring with truth and accuracy. The questions that I asked Loy were specifically designed to weed out those who over the years have wasted much of my time. I sincerely believe that The Men on the Sixth Floor answers many previously unanswerable questions surrounding the murder of our beloved President, John F. Kennedy.

My gratitude goes out to Loy for having the courage to break his silence after these 30 years, and to Mark Collom for never giving up on this story.

Congratulations Loy and Mark - you are now among the few and the brave.

Larry N. Howard (Larry Howard, who passed away in January, 1994 was the president and director of The JFK Assassination Information Center of Dallas.)

Chapter 1

A Murder in Johnston County

Suddenly, on October 2, 1968, Lawrence Loy Factor, 43, a quiet, soft spoken Chickasaw Indian became the subject of statewide newspaper headlines. Deborah, his 15 year-old stepdaughter had led law enforcement officers to the body of her 31 year-old mother, Juanita, buried in a shallow grave, 3/4 of a mile from the family home in Fillmore, Oklahoma. She had been strangled; the belt that had been the murder weapon was found tightly wrapped around her neck. She told the sheriff’s deputies that it was Loy who had murdered her mother.

Loy disappeared from sight into the surrounding woods with his 4 year-old son Donny, and for 12 days eluded an army of searchers who, with the help of bloodhounds, helicopters and loudspeakers, pleaded with him to give up. The Indian, who was not only a diabetic, but also an amputee with a wooden leg, made fools of the searchers. His skill as a woodsman and hunter served him well, as he had become the object of the largest manhunt in southern Oklahoma history. But on October 14th, Johnston County Sheriff Herman Ford and Wayne Worthen, an investigator with the District Attorney’s office, found Factor and his young son. He was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

Not able to meet the $15,000 bail, Factor was confined to the county jail at Tishomingo, until his trial - a wild media event in mid May of 1969. But an unsure jury was split in its decision 6-6, resulting in a mistrial.

A second jury found Factor guilty of first degree manslaughter and sentenced him to 44 years. He was sent to the State Prison at McAlester, Oklahoma, to begin serving his time.

Sometime in 1971, a bout with hepatitis sent Loy to the hospital ward inside McAlester. The only patient in the isolation area was Mark Collom, a young man of 21, who was likewise being treated for hepatitis. Collom was serving a short sentence for a drug-related conviction.

The young man found the Indian to be a pleasant, likable person. Mark had never actually known a murderer before but found that Loy didn’t seem to fit the part. To the contrary, the man was almost simple-minded, childlike. The soft-spoken man was absorbed in an appeal to his manslaughter conviction, busily reading and asking for Mark’s help and opinions on various aspects of his case. In conversations, the Indian consistently denied murdering his wife, explaining to his young friend his theory that it was his step-daughter, Deborah and her boyfriend who had committed the crime. He shared with Mark his trial transcripts which revealed Deborah’s testimony to be the most damaging, while Loy often appeared to be confused and disjointed in his testimony. In the final analysis the jury believed the perjured testimony of a 15-year-old girl and interpreted Loy’s mental slowness as guilt. It became clearer in Mark’s mind that his new friend was an innocent man.

What was unclear however, was the motive for murder. It had been common knowledge that Mrs. Factor and her daughter did not get along, but why would young Deborah strangle her? Loy confided to Mark that he had hidden away, in an old antique corn planter, a considerable sum of money; money that he had never told anyone of, except Juanita. The family had lived on the secreted money for several years, but one day Deborah observed Juanita

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retrieving some of the money from its hiding place. Juanita reported this to Loy, who immediately found another hiding place for the money, but it was too late. According to Factor, Deborah told her boyfriend, Sam Davis, about the cash and the two of them began planning on stealing the money and running off together. The young, troublesome pair was a constant source of grief to the Factors. Loy speculated that the two of them tried to force Juanita to disclose the location of the money, strangling her in the process.

Juanita tried to warn her husband before her death that Deborah and Sam were up to something sinister. Loy often expressed regret that he had ignored his wife’s expressions of fear and vulnerability. He also cursed the day he came into possession of that money.

The two men spent a many weeks together in the hospital. No one else was there to disturb the boredom as they talked, read trial transcripts and discussed Loy’s legal strategies. As the days and weeks passed, Mark’s respect for Loy grew. Eventually Mark inquired about the money. Where had it come from? Why