Jump to content
The Education Forum

H. L. Hunt and Richard Nixon


Recommended Posts

For my sins I have been reading Maurice Stans' The Terrors of Justice (1978). It does include one interesting passage. Nixon instructed Stans on the collection of funds for his 1972 election campaign. Nixon said, and I quote: "Don't take any money under any circumstances from H. L. Hunt". Stans points out he never discovered why Nixon was so hostile to the idea of Hunt providing him with funds.

Texas Rich- The Hunt Dynasty from the early oil days through the Silver Crash- by Harry Hurt III, offers some background. In 1968 Bunker Hunt was a major financial backer of the Wallace campaign.

During 1972 Hunt's sons Bunker & Lamar were the subject of a federal investigation and were eventually, in 1973, indicted for wiretapping. Hurt reports that, in April 1972, HL Hunt and Bunker attended a barbeque at John Connally's ranch at which President Nixon was in attendance. It was rumored that Hunt complained to Nixon about the feds investigating his sons. Not long afterwards Bunker attended a lunch at Seanator Eastland's ranch which was also attended by Attorney-General Kleindinst, and the federal investigation of Bunker was mentioned again.

HL Hunt is one of the most fascinating characters that ever came out of Texas, but Richard Nixon knew that, as a moderate republican, Hunt's far-out political opinions would be electoral poison to Nixon. I suspect that Nixon also felt that any money he took from Hunt would look like a bribe on behalf of Bunker & Lamar, and Nixon was not prepared to call off that particular investigation.

I think the incident shows Nixon in a good light, faithfully upholding the law and practising smart electoral politics at the same time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dawn wrote:

I'm commerating Memorial Day by re-reading "Farewell America".

The story behind "Farewell America" (as told by William Turner) is fascinating. I am sure you are aware of it. Supposedly it was written by someone with connections to French intelligence, as I recall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gary Mack published an account of Madeleine Brown's story on 14th May, 1997.

Madeleine has claimed over the years that she attended a party at Clint Murchison’s house the night before the assassination and LBJ, Hoover and Nixon were there. The party story, without LBJ, first came from Penn Jones in Forgive My Grief. In that version, the un-credited source was a black chauffeur whom Jones didn’t identify, and the explanation Jones gave was that it was the last chance to decide whether or not to kill JFK. Of course, Hoover used only top FBI agents for transportation and in the FBI of 1963, none were black. Actually, there is no confirmation for a party at Murchison’s. I asked Peter O’Donnell because Madeleine claimed he was there, too. Peter said there was no party. Madeleine even said there was a story about it in the Dallas Times Herald some months later (which makes no sense), but she had not been able to find it. Val Imm (Society Editor of the Dallas Times Herald) told Bob Porter (of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza staff) recently she had no memory of such an event and even looked through her notes - in vain.

Could LBJ have been at a Murchison party? No. LBJ was seen and photographed in the Houston Coliseum with JFK at a dinner and speech. They flew out around 10pm and arrived at Carswell (Air Force Base in northwest Fort Worth) at 11:07 Thursday night. Their motorcade to the Hotel Texas arrived about 11:50 and LBJ was again photographed. He stayed in the Will Rogers suite on the 13th floor and Manchester (William Manchester - author of The Death of a President) says he was up late. Could Nixon have been at Murchison’s party? No. Tony Zoppi (Entertainment Editor of The Dallas Morning News) and Don Safran (Entertainment Editor of the Dallas Times Herald) saw Nixon at the Empire Room at the Statler-Hilton. He walked in with Joan Crawford (Movie actress). Robert Clary (of Hogan’s Heroes fame) stopped his show to point them out, saying “. . . either you like him or you don’t.” Zoppi thought that was in poor taste, but Safran said Nixon laughed. Zoppi’s deadline was 11pm, so he stayed until 10:30 or 10:45 and Nixon was still there.

I don't always agree with Gary but I think he is right on this one. If LBJ, Hunt, Murchison, George Brown, Nixon, etc. had been involved in the plot against JFK, I think it would be highly unlikely that they would meet up together on the eve of the assassination. Although I would like to believe it as it is one of the few sources that mentions that the 8F Suite Group was involved in the assassination.

I don't know if I agree or disagree with this scenario. But I don't believe Penn Jones' or Ms. Brown's account of this party should be summarily dismissed. I recently was looking through Kai Bird's book on McCloy and saw that, sure enough, McCloy was in Dallas on the eve of the assassination. Need to double-check to see if that book was released before or after Ms. Brown's statements. I also believe Gary Mack is wrong wrong wrong about J. Edgar Hoover's use of black chauffeurs. A number of books on Hoover relate that he had several black chauffeurs on the FBI's dime, and that he gave these men the status of agent so that he could report to congress he had black agents, and so that they could not be drafted. I also remember reading a book on the Murchisons, which didn't focus on the assassination at all, but that nevertheless dealt with the question of whether or not there was a party. As I remember the book uncovered substantial info that there was a party. I'll have to look it up when I get home. So let's just say I'm undecided on this issue.

Furthermore, I think it's silly to believe that Ruby's killing of Oswald was anything but a last-minute desperate act. It certainly was not planned before the killing of Kennedy. As a result, Ruby's phone calls to Barney Baker and his visit to Hunt by no means proves they weren't involved.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From an Internet posting, Clint Murchison, Jr. on the history of the hamburger (irrelevant but of general interest):

People who helped me most in my research were Clint Murchison, Jr., of Dallas and Kindree Miller, Sr., a fifth-generation potter in Athens. Fletcher Davis was Mr. Miller’s uncle.

A reporter for the New York Tribune wrote from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair of a new sandwich called a hamburger, “the innovation of a food vendor on the pike.” By “pike” he meant the World’s Fair midway.

Clint Murchison, Jr., had sent me a big picture of the 1904 World’s Fair midway with “Old Dave’s Hamburger Stand” marked apparently by Clint’s grandfather, John Murchison, an Athens banker.

About ten years ago, Clint told me that his grandfather said that the as yet unnamed sandwich, the one now called hamburger, was served at an Athens lunch counter in the late 1880s.

Grandfather Murchison had vivid memories of the 1880s sandwich but recalled the name of the innovator only as “Old Dave.” Grandfather Murchison said the hamburger pioneer’s little café was next to the J. J. Powers drugstore (later Stirman’s drug) on the north side of the Henderson County courthouse square.

The sandwich was described as the classic greasy hamburger except that it was served with just-out-of-the-oven slices of home-baked bread rather than on a round bun.

Banker Murchison had traveled over much of the United States in the late 1880s and 1890s. He said he never saw another sandwich similar to Old Dave’s. He said Athens folks were so intrigued that they raised a sum of money to send the sandwich virtuoso to the World’s Fair.

Now “Hamburger University,” the McDonald’s food chain research organization, has apparently worked hard on the history of the chain’s principal product. And Hamburger University’s conclusion is that an anonymous food vendor at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair was the first to introduce the sandwich to the public and was probably the innovator.

My problem was with the lack of memory about Old Dave’s full name, in the case of Grandfather Murchison, and the sloppy reporting done by the 1904 New York Tribune writer who apparently just wanted to express his relish for the sandwich and to hell with the guy who made it.

* * * * * *

Well, I can tie it into the assassination. Sen Gary Hart, as we know, researched the Kennedy assassination with Sen Schweiker when they served on the Church Committee. His presidential campaign was damaged when Sen Walter Mondale used against him the slogan from a then popular commercial for a hamburger chain: "Where's the beef?"

Edited by Tim Gratz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found the following quotation attributed to Gary Mack re the "party':

"It isn't being taken very seriously," Mack says. "That story about the party at Clint Murchison's house was actually made up by a retired deputy sheriff who was trying to help some conspiracy theorist."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On a quick look back through Jane Wolfe's biography of the Murchisons I was unable to find any reference to the "party," so I could very well be wrong. I was probably thinking of The Men Who Killed Kennedy or some other program.

As for Tim's assertion that Hunt and Murchison were Kennedy/LBJ supporters a quick look through their biographies reveals that Hunt stood behind LBJ in 60, and spent a small fortune attacking Kennedy as a papist. After LBJ jumped on board with JFK, he still stood by him, until after the assassination, when he swtched his allegiance and financial support to...General Edwin Walker! Similarly, Murchison was an LBJ man in 60, but he jumped ship when Kennedy got the nomination and became one of Nixon's top financial supporters. He and Nixon became so tight, in fact, that they vacationed at Del Charro and Del Mar with Hoover and Clyde. Sweet!

Also, the book on Hunt claims he was told by the Feds and DPD to go into hiding after the assass, but went to Washington instead and stayed at the Mayflower. Evidently, he returned home after Christmas... One wonders... Why did he go to Washington? To be close to LBJ?

Edited by Pat Speer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 years later...
Guest Robert Morrow

Pat Speer: "In the movie Nixon, Stone put forth the theory that Nixon believed Texas oilmen and their Cuban exile buddies were behind the JFK assassination, and that Nixon suspected as much and was guilt-ridden over it. These guys supported Nixon from way back and he courted their support. By name, these Texas oilmen were the Hunts, the Murchisons and Connally's provider Sid Richardson (although I think he died before 63). I believe Hemmings has admitted that Hunt funded a lot of his and Loran Hall's activities."

If that is true - then I believe what Nixon did about the JFK assassination - Texas oil men, Lyndon Johnson, intelligence operatives & anti-Castro Cuban exiles were behind the JFK assassination.

You can add George Herbert Walker Bush to the mix, too - a man who was/is tightly woven with all of those key groups and a man who helped to plan the Bay of Pigs invasion. GHW Bush is the guy who Fletcher Prouty delivered 3 boats to before the Bay of Pigs invasion; the man who says he forgot where he was when JFK was killed; the man who reacted hysterically to Nixon's "smoking gun memo" and all its references to the "whole Bay of Pigs thing," Nixon's code phrase for the JFK assassination.

HL Hunt involved in the JFK assassination? Sure. And especially look at the extremely close relationship of the Hunt family and the Bush family today in the year 2013. And there is no question that both GHW Bush and later his son Jeb Bush have had very close ties to radical anti-Castro Cuban leadership - these are the folks who believe JFK betrayed them and who figured so prominently in the JFK assassination at the operational level (oil men/LBJ at the executive level).

Ray Lee Hunt, the son of H.L. Hunt, gave $25,000,000 to George W. Bush's presidential library!! Let's not forget to mention that GWB #41 appointed Ray Lee Hunt to his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, a plum position. Unlike the Murchisons who lost much of their money, the Hunt family are billionaires today (Ray Lee Hunt Net Worth $5.6 B As of March 2013).

The oil business, intelligence and high level politics have all gone hand-in-hand for many decades.

From a Tom Defrank article in the Atlantic, dated April 22, 2013: "Bush Is Back! (At Least Sorta, Kinda, Reluctantly): With the opening of his library this week, the 43rd president is edging back into view -- but he still prefers painting and golfing to politics."

"Bush's $500 million fundraising target was originally scaled back to $300 million given the unpopularity of his second term. But Obama's unpopularity in his first two years helped loosen Republican checkbooks, and the half-billion target has been reached -- to the amazement of many in the Bush orbit.

One Bush family friend, Dallas billionaire Ray Hunt, gave his elk-hunting buddy $25 million."

Web link: http://www.theatlant...ctantly/275186/

Edited by Robert Morrow
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...