Killough, James S.

James Sevier Killough was born in Dallas in 1910 to Mary Maud Lett and Joseph Killough, both of who were born in Tennessee and died in Dallas. James graduated from Bryan Street High School (aka Crozier Tech, Dallas High), where he was a member of ROTC, which led to a reserve officer commission in the U.S. Army. He attended law school at Jefferson University in Dallas and was admitted to the Texas Bar in 1933.

On May 12, 1934 he married Iris Marjorie Gilpin (born in Dallas in 1915), daughter of Ruby Lee Ratliff and Fred Young Gilpin. Iris attended Williamson Private School on Clarendon Avenue in Oak Cliff and graduated from Sunset High School.

While practicing law in Dallas, Second Lt. Killough was called to active duty in the Army and supervised the establishment of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps in Woody Creek, Colorado, and Tonto National Forest west of Phoenix, Arizona. After one and a half years of active duty he returned to Dallas to continue his law practice with the firm of Killough and Ford, specializing in insurance law. Upon his release from the Army, Killough held the rank of Captain of Infantry, U.S. Army Reserve.

A son, James, Jr., was born in Dallas on September 28, 1935.

In 1938 Killough became a federal undercover narcotics agent in New York City and was instrumental in breaking up illegal narcotics operations involving the Mafia in the upper west side of Manhattan known as "The Hill." Early 1940 found him in Little Rock, Arkansas Narcotics Division agent-in-charge. In a one-year period, his team of undercover agents successfully arrested and prosecuted thirty physicians engaged in illegal morphine trade.

Capt. Killough was again called to active duty in late 1940 and was made commander of a heavy weapons company at Ft. Benning, Georgia. Early 1941 saw him transferred to Camp Wolters at Mineral Wells. Soon after, because of his experience in undercover narcotics service, he was assigned detached duty to Ft. McIntosh in Laredo, as District Intelligence Officer to cover the Mexican border. Due to Mexico's neutrality at that time, it was a hotbed of foreign intelligence operations. Capt. Killough developed a prime contact who was a former German merchant sailor escaping from the Nazi regime - an excellent poker player having many international contacts, and an invaluable resource for the U.S. cause. It was in this assignment that Killough decoded the message informing the military commanders that Pearl Harbor had been bombed and the U.S. was in a state of war. Two weeks later the border was closed to foreign travel.

In rapid succession Capt. Killough was posted to Louisiana to secure the port of New Orleans; to Little Rock to establish an intelligence district where two Japanese-Americans relocation camps were to be established; and to Ft. Bliss, Texas, to establish the West Texas - New Mexico Intelligence District, including the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos.

Son Michael Vance was born in Dallas on September 11, 1942.

Other detached service sent Capt. Killough to military government schools at the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago, language schools at Presidio, Monterey, and finally assignment to Headquarters Tenth Army on Oahu, Hawaii. His outfit, 24th Corps, 10th Army, shipped out on a Landing Ship-Vehicle (one of only two ever built during the war-the size of a light cruiser and carrying 5" guns as well as anti-aircraft guns).