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Clint Murchison and the JFK Assassination


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Is it possible that Clint Murchison helped to fund the JFK assassination? Murchison was a close friend of both Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover. His relationship with LBJ dates back to the 1948 Senate election. Murchison was one of his largest financial backers.

Texas oil millionaires such as Murchison, fought hard to maintain its tax concessions. The most important of these was the oil depletion allowance. It allowed producers to use the depletion allowed to deduct just 5 per cent of their income and the deduction was limited to the original cost of their property. However, in 1926 the depletion allowance was increased to 27.5 per cent.

As Robert Bryce pointed out in his book, Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate: "Johnson's 1948 race was reportedly the most expensive political campaign ever wages in Texas. The money flowed to Johnson like an inexhaustible river. By befriending Richardson, Murchison, Hunt, and other oilmen like Amon Carter of Fort Worth, Wesley West of Austin, and R. J. Parten of Houston, Johnson assured himself of nearly unlimited funding."

Philip F. Nelson, the author of LBJ: The Mastermind of the JFK Assassination (2011) has pointed out that the oil depletion allowance, "allowed them to retain 27.5 percent of their oil revenue tax-tree; its loss, according to World Petroleum magazine, stood to cost the industry as much as $280 million in annual profits. The original rationale for such an allowance was that the product that their investments yielded yeas a finite resource that would require continual investments in exploration and recovery in order to extend the flow of raw material; the more the companies produced, the less was available. Recognition of this depletion of the asset was intended as an incentive for finding and recovering more oil fields. (How this particular commodity was materially different from other forms of mining, or commercial ocean fishing, or even farming, was never fully explained, other than perhaps the oilmen having better lobbyists than the others.)"

Murchison also became friends with J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was the start of a long friendship. According to Anthony Summers, the author of The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (1993): "Recognizing Edgar's influence as a national figure, the oilmen had started cultivating him in the late forties-inviting him to Texas as a houseguest, taking him on hunting expeditions. Edgar's relations with them were to go far beyond what was proper for a Director of the FBI."

Hoover and his boyfriend, Clyde Tolson, were regular visitors to Murchison's Del Charro Hotel in La Jolla, California. The three men would visit the local racetrack, Del Mar. Allan Witwer, the manager of the hotel at the time, later recalled: "It came to the end of the summer and Hoover had made no attempt to pay his bill. So I went to Murchison and asked him what he wanted me to do." Murchison told him to put it on his bill. Witwer estimates that over the next 18 summers Murchison's hospitality was worth nearly $300,000. Other visitors to the hotel included Richard Nixon, John Connally, Lyndon B. Johnson, Meyer Lansky, Santos Trafficante, Johnny Rosselli, Sam Giancana and Carlos Marcello.

Clint Murchison was also closely liked to the Mafia. In 1955 a Senate committee discovered that 20 per cent of the Murchison Oil Lease Company was owned by Vito Genovese and his family. The committee also discovered Murchison had close financial ties with Carlos Marcello. Later, Bobby Baker claimed that. "Murchison owned a piece of Hoover. Rich people always try to put their money with the sheriff, because they're looking for protection. Hoover was the personification of law and order and officially against gangsters and everything, so it was a plus for a rich man to be identified with him. That's why men like Murchison made it their business to let everyone know Hoover was their friend. You can do a lot of illegal things if the head lawman is your buddy."

In 1958 Murchison purchased the publishers, Henry Holt and Company. He told the New York Post: "Before I got them, they published some books that were badly pro-Communist. They had some bad people there.... We just cleared them all out and put some good men in. Sure there were casualties but now we've got a good operation." One of the first book's he published was by his old friend, J. Edgar Hoover. The book, Masters of Deceit: The Story of Communism in America (1958), was an account of the Communist menace and sold over 250,000 copies in hardcover and over 2,000,000 in paperback. It was on the best-seller lists for thirty-one weeks, three of them as the number one non-fiction choice.

William Sullivan was ordered to oversee the project, claimed that as many as eight agents worked full-time on the book for nearly six months. Curt Gentry, the author of J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets (1991) points out Hoover claimed that he intended to give all royalties to the FBI Recreational Association (FBIRA). However, he claims that the "FBIRA was a slush fund, maintained for the use of Hoover, Tolson, and their key aides. It was also a money-laundering operation, so the director would not have to9 pay taxes on his book royalties." Gentry quotes Sullivan as saying that Hoover "put many thousands of dollars of that book.... into his own pocket, and so did Tolson."

In 1955 Lyndon B. Johnson became majority leader of the Senate. Johnson and Richard Russell now had complete control over all the important Senate committees. This was proving to be an expensive business. The money used to bribe these politicians came from Russell’s network of businessmen. These were men usually involved in the oil and armaments industries. According to John Connally, large sums of money was given to Johnson throughout the 1950s for distribution to his political friends. “I handled inordinate amounts of cash”. A great deal of this came from oilmen like Murchison.

In 1956 there was another attempt to end all federal price control over natural gas. Sam Rayburn played an important role in getting it through the House of Representatives. This is not surprising as according to Connally, he alone had been responsible for a million and a half dollars of lobbying. Paul Douglas and William Langer led the fight against the bill. Their campaigned was helped by an amazing speech by Francis Case of South Dakota. Up until this time Case had been a supporter of the bill. However, he announced that he had been offered a $25,000 bribe by the Superior Oil Company to guarantee his vote. As a man of principal, he thought he should announce this fact to the Senate.

Johnson responded by claiming that Case had himself come under pressure to make this statement by people who wanted to retain federal price controls. Johnson argued: “In all my twenty-five years in Washington I have never seen a campaign of intimidation equal to the campaign put on by the opponents of this bill.” Johnson pushed on with the bill and it was eventually passed by 53 votes to 38. However, three days later, Dwight D. Eisenhower, vetoed the bill on grounds of immoral lobbying. Eisenhower confided in his diary that this had been “the most flagrant kind of lobbying that has been brought to my attention”. He added that there was a “great stench around the passing of this bill” and the people involved were “so arrogant and so much in defiance of acceptable standards of propriety as to risk creating doubt among the American people concerning the integrity of governmental processes”.

Murchison and Sid Richardson began negotiations with President Eisenhower. In June, 1957, Eisenhower agreed to appoint their man, Robert Anderson, as his Secretary of the Treasury. According to Robert Sherrill in his book, The Accidental President: "A few weeks later Anderson was appointed to a cabinet committee to "study" the oil import situation; out of this study came the present-day program which benefits the major oil companies, the international oil giants primarily, by about one billion dollars a year."

During the 1960 presidential election John F. Kennedy gave his support for the oil depletion allowance. In October, 1960, he said that he appreciated "the value and importance of the oil-depletion allowance. I realize its purpose and value... The oil-depletion allowance has served us well." However, two years later, Kennedy decided to take on the oil industry. On 16th October, 1962, Kennedy was able to persuade Congress to pass an act that removed the distinction between repatriated profits and profits reinvested abroad. While this law applied to industry as a whole, it especially affected the oil companies. It was estimated that as a result of this legislation, wealthy oilmen saw a fall in their earnings on foreign investment from 30 per cent to 15 per cent.

On 17th January, 1963, President Kennedy presented his proposals for tax reform. This included relieving the tax burdens of low-income and elderly citizens. Kennedy also claimed he wanted to remove special privileges and loopholes. He even said he wanted to do away with the oil depletion allowance. It is estimated that the proposed removal of the oil depletion allowance would result in a loss of around $300 million a year to Texas oilmen.

Rumours began to circulate that Murchison might have been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A friend of Murchison, Madeleine Brown, claimed in an interview on the television show, A Current Affair that on the 21st November, 1963, she was at his home in Dallas. Others at the meeting included Haroldson L. Hunt, J. Edgar Hoover, Clyde Tolson, John J. McCloy and Richard Nixon. At the end of the evening Lyndon B. Johnson arrived. Brown said in this interview: "Tension filled the room upon his arrival. The group immediately went behind closed doors. A short time later Lyndon, anxious and red-faced, reappeared. I knew how secretly Lyndon operated. Therefore I said nothing... not even that I was happy to see him. Squeezing my hand so hard, it felt crushed from the pressure, he spoke with a grating whisper, a quiet growl, into my ear, not a love message, but one I'll always remember: "After tomorrow those goddamn Kennedys will never embarrass me again - that's no threat - that's a promise."

Gary Mack has argued that this party never took place: "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."

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmurchison.htm

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Guest Robert Morrow

Clint Murchison was at the core of the JFK assassination. H.L. Hunt and D.H Byrd very likely were, too. Murchison, like his investment LBJ, was heavily "mobbed up" and like LBJ had close ties to military intelligence. Murchison, in fact, was a business partner with Jack Crichton, military intelligence, who was the man who provided the controversial interpreter Illya Mamantov for Marina. Jack Crichton was the Texas GOP nominee for governor in 1964. Murchison was plugged in at the highest levels LBJ (Demos) and Crichton (GOP).

Clint Murchison was the top business leader and behind the scenes political leader in Dallas in the 1963 era. In fact, if one person personified the center of business and political power in Texas in 1963 it would be Clint Murchison, Sr. His son, Clint Jr. was a founding owner of the Dallas Cowboys in 1960.

The 11/21/63 party is not necessary in order to deduce Murchison's role in the JFK assassination. Forget the party; focus on who the man Murchison was. I think what happened was LBJ called Madeleine Brown in the morning of 11/22/63, from the Fort Worth Hotel, and made all those threatening remarks about the Kennedys. When Madeleine was interviewed by Geraldo Rivera, she did not mention the Murchison party, but she did say LBJ called her in the morning. And she did say that LBJ later told her it was Dallas, TX oil men, "the fat cats," and the CIA that was behind the JFK assassination.

Lyndon Johnson on the morning of 11/22/63 to Madeleine Brown:

"His snarling voice jolted me as never before - "That son-of-a-bitch crazy Yarborough and that goddamn _____ Irish mafia bastard, Kennedy, will never embarass me again!"

I managed to say, "I'm looking forward to tonight," when he blasted out even louder, "I've got about a minute to get to the parking lot to hear that bastard!", and he slammed down the phone. I was startled ... an uneasiness gripped me over Lyndon's actions and temper." [Madeleine Duncan Brown, Texas in the Morning, p. 167]

Then there is this nugget from 1963 which shows the close personal ties between John J. McCloy and Clint Murchison, Sr.:

"That summer, McCloy relaxed more than he had for many years. He hunted whitewings with Clint Murchison on the Texas oil man's Mexico farm." [Kai Bird, The Chairman, p. 542]

Now check out this passage from the biography Clint: Clint Williams Murchison by Ernestine Orrick Van Buren who was Murchison's personal secretary for 20 years. Note 3 things: 1) Murchison is in "cold disbelief" at the idea of Lyndon Johnson on the ticket with John Kennedy. 2) The author completely skips over the Kennedy years. 3) Clint turns down an LBJ presidential phone call to resume a nap. That shows hierarchy. Very few folks turn down a presidential phone call.

"Clint was in La Jolla during the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles, in July 1960, and he avidly followed the proceedings on television. The avalanche of superb organization which gave John F. Kennedy the nomination on the first ballot was a huge disappointment. When the word was flashed that Lyndon Johnson had accepted the vice-presidential spot on the Kennedy ticket, Clint Murchison listened in cold disbelief.
In December 1963, soon after Lyndon Johnson became president following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, there was a soft rap on the bedroom door where Clint was napping. It was Warren Tilley, butler at Gladoak Farms. "Washington calling, Mr. Murchison. The president [Lyndon Johnson] wants to speak with you.
A brief silence followed. Then through the closed door came the muffled voice of Clint Murchison. "Tell the president I can't hear him." Clint resumed his nap."*

*Virginia Murchison Linthicum Interview, September 20, 1980
[Ernestine Orrick Van Buren, Clint, pp. 317-318]

What kind of a person turns down a phone call from the president of the USA to instead continue a nap? Someone who thinks they are more important than the president of the USA.

When JFK was slaughtered, Russia’s Khrushchev was literally crying, fearing nuclear war. Cuba’s Castro worried and feared an US invasion and gave an impressive speech the next day deconstructing the CIA’s deception provocation for war. Meanwhile at Clint Murchison’s home, their family maid May Newman describes the scene: “The mood in the Murchison family home was very joyous and happy. For a whole week after like champagne and caviar flowed, every day of the week. But I was the only one in that household at that time that felt any grief for his assassination." [The Men Who Killed Kennedy, The Guilty Men, Episode 9]

Russ Baker:

"…Lyndon Johnson shared in the prevailing oil belt enmity toward Kennedy. In fact, he was the one person in the White House the oilmen trusted….After Johnson ascended to the presidency, he and newly elected congressman Bush were often allies on such issues as the oil depletion allowance and the war in Vietnam….[oil executive Jack] Crichton (close with Bush and head of a secretive Dallas-based, oil-connected military intelligence unit that deeply immersed in aspects of the tragic events of November 22, 1963) was so plugged into the Dallas power structure that one of his company directors was Clint Murchison Sr., king of the oil depletion allowance, and another was D. Harold Byrd, owner of the Texas School Book Depository building.…."

Edited by Robert Morrow
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I suspect there were a lot people who were thrilled by JFK's murder, but I'm sure that only a relative handful knew it was going to happen. Clint may have funded it, but I'm convinced that if was run by Angleton and his cronies.

I had a partner in the Tac Unit who had been a Green Beret in Vietnam and later worked Phoenix. He had heard the contract was discussed by a small group of SF and that SF snipers had been the triggermen.

In spite trying to resume the conversation, he would never discuss it further. I verified through a retired high ranking Army officer that he had been both in Phoenix and a GB.

Edited by Evan Marshall
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Guest Robert Morrow

I suspect there were a lot people who were thrilled by JFK's murder, but I'm sure that only a relative handful knew it was going to happen. Clint may have funded it, but I'm convinced that if was run by Angleton and his cronies.

I had a partner in the Tac Unit who had been a Green Beret in Vietnam and later worked Phoenix. He had heard the contract was discussed by a small group of SF and that SF snipers had been the triggermen.

In spite trying to resume the conversation, he would never discuss it further. I verified through a retired high ranking Army officer that he had been both in Phoenix and a GB.

It is why I think Madeleine Brown is the greatest revelation ever in JFK research (and, no, I am not a believer in the Murchison party). Lyndon Johnson, confirmed by his presidential schedule and press reports as being present at the Driskill Hotel, Austin, TX on the night of 12/31/63 - just 6 weeks after the JFK assassination told Madeleine that the perps of the JFK assassination were Dallas, TX oil men who she knew and renegade intelligence agents. Madeleine was quite consistent in telling every person she met that story of the Driskill meeting for 20 years after she came public.

LBJ only left himself out. I think that encapsulates the JFK nicely and accurately, with the only addition I would make would be US military intelligence (Gen. Edward Lansdale & his superiors), CIA-connected anti-Castro Cubans and mafia with ties to LBJ, CIA and anti-Castro Cubans.

The JFK assassination was a classic and typical case of the outside shadow government ordering the inside government (CIA/military to do killing - FBI Hoover to cover it up, & LBJ completely an inner circle plotter), to do its bidding on some sort of crime (governmental overthrow).

The CIA boys were ultimately working for the shadow government billionaires; this was not merely a mid level CIA plot at all.

Madeleine Duncan Brown was a mistress of Lyndon Johnson for 21 years and had a son with him named Steven Mark Brown in 1950. Madeleine mixed with the Texas elite and had many trysts with Lyndon Johnson over the years, including one at the Driskill Hotel in Austin, TX, on New Year's Eve 12/31/63. In the late evening of 12/31/63, just 6 weeks after the JFK assassination, Madeleine asked Lyndon Johnson:

"Lyndon, you know that a lot of people believe you had something to do with President Kennedy's assassination."

He shot up out of bed and began pacing and waving his arms screaming like a madman. I was scared!

"That's bull___, Madeleine Brown!" he yelled. "Don't tell me you believe that crap!"

"Of course not." I answered meekly, trying to cool his temper.

"It was Texas oil and those _____ renegade intelligence bastards in Washington." [said Lyndon Johnson] [Texas in the Morning, p. 189]

Edited by Robert Morrow
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I recently acquired a copy of Jane Wolfe's book, The Murchisons: The Rise and Fall of a Texas Dynasty (1989). In the book she accepts that Murchison had a corrupt relationship with LBJ. However, she argues that Murchison's relationship with LBJ came to an end when he accepted the offer to be the running-mate of John F. Kennedy: "Many of Texas's richest oilmen had supported Johnson for years with large contributions, but when he accepted the vice presidency under Kennedy, they felt betrayed. Johnson had enormous clout in the Senate, and much of this power was due to these Texas oilmen. During the fifties LBJ breakfasts at Clint's Preston Road home were commonplace. The Texas senator and ten or twelve of the state's richest oilmen would gather for coffee on the front porch, while Johnson gave an overview of what might happen in Congress affecting the oil industry and of the coming election. Johnson would announce which senators needed money and just how much they needed to defeat their opponents. Then Clint Murchison would assign the fund-raising job to one of the men gathered at the breakfast... In return, Johnson was expected to deliver the vote on the depletion allowance, and all other legislation of interest of the oilman."

Wolfe argues that even after LBJ became president, Murchison refused offers to get together again.

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Guest Robert Morrow

I recently acquired a copy of Jane Wolfe's book, The Murchisons: The Rise and Fall of a Texas Dynasty (1989). In the book she accepts that Murchison had a corrupt relationship with LBJ. However, she argues that Murchison's relationship with LBJ came to an end when he accepted the offer to be the running-mate of John F. Kennedy: "Many of Texas's richest oilmen had supported Johnson for years with large contributions, but when he accepted the vice presidency under Kennedy, they felt betrayed. Johnson had enormous clout in the Senate, and much of this power was due to these Texas oilmen. During the fifties LBJ breakfasts at Clint's Preston Road home were commonplace. The Texas senator and ten or twelve of the state's richest oilmen would gather for coffee on the front porch, while Johnson gave an overview of what might happen in Congress affecting the oil industry and of the coming election. Johnson would announce which senators needed money and just how much they needed to defeat their opponents. Then Clint Murchison would assign the fund-raising job to one of the men gathered at the breakfast... In return, Johnson was expected to deliver the vote on the depletion allowance, and all other legislation of interest of the oilman."

Wolfe argues that even after LBJ became president, Murchison refused offers to get together again.

Let's put it this way. After the JFK assassination, the cherished and favorable oil depreciation allowance was not touched for the of LBJ's term in office.

Clint Murchison and LBJ were both "mobbed up" and Murchison had a relationship with Bobby Baker, a scandal that was exploding in October/November, 1963.

Edited by Robert Morrow
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Madeleine Duncan Brown was a mistress of Lyndon Johnson for 21 years and had a son with him named Steven Mark Brown in 1950.

What is the proof of this? Is this LBJ mistress of 21 years mentioned anywhere in Robert Caro's exhaustive multi-volume biography of LBJ? I have read Brown's book, which as far as I know is the only "proof" of this relationship. I recall that there is a photo in the book that shows Madeleine and her son seated in a roomful of people, and somewhere in the background is someone who is supposed to be LBJ. This photo (if it is actually LBJ) proves that LBJ and Madeleine Brown were once in the same room at the same time. Is there anything else?

Edited by Ron Ecker
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Guest Robert Morrow

Madeleine Duncan Brown was a mistress of Lyndon Johnson for 21 years and had a son with him named Steven Mark Brown in 1950.

What is the proof of this? Is this LBJ mistress of 21 years mentioned anywhere in Robert Caro's exhaustive multi-volume biography of LBJ? I have read Brown's book, which as far as I know is the only "proof" of this relationship. I recall that there is a photo in the book that shows Madeleine and her son seated in a roomful of people, and somewhere in the background is someone who is supposed to be LBJ. This photo (if it is actually LBJ) proves that LBJ and Madeleine Brown were once in the same room at the same time. Is there anything else?

Robert Caro is a coward and a xxxx. Caro has all the facts in front of his nose; yet is terrified obvious to make conclusions regarding Lyndon Johnson and the JFK assassination. As a side note Caro never interviewed Madeleine, although he had 20+ years; never interviewed Billie Sol Estes nor Barr McClellan, nor Charles Crenshaw nor 100 witnesses of importance to understanding the JFK assassination.

Robert Caro has told me in person at a May, 2012, book signing in Austin that in all his years of research into Lyndon Johnson, he did not find so much as "hint" of LBJ's involvement in the JFK assassination. The outrageous mutual hatred of LBJ and the Kennedys combined with the machine run riddled Warren Report is certainly a "hint."

Dozens of JFK researchers had exposure to Madeleine and the vast majority of them believe her and even they did not take in her whole story they knew she was obviously a mistress of LBJ due to all the LBJ "insider baseball" that they learned from here. Ken Holmes of Dallas, now deceased, told me that he knew Madeleine and Steven and that you would not need a DNA test to know that it was LBJ's son. Gaylon Ross told me that he interviewed humorist Cactus Pryor of Austin, a man long associated with the Johnson family and radio station, and Cactus confirmed to him that yes, of course, Madeleine was a girlfriend of LBJ. Jim Marrs, who used to work as a journalist at a Fort Worth paper, interviewed his friends in the press corps and they told him, yes, of course Madeleine was a girlfriend of LBJ. An open secret.

I should add - Jack White, also of Texas, had much interaction with Madeleine Brown and before he died Jack said he considered Madeleine one of the most credible witnesses in JFK research.

Ed Tatro, a veteran JFK researcher, who helped Madeleine write her book, re-united Madeleine with Allan Witwer who was the manager of the Del Charro in the 1950's. When Madeleine and Witwer saw each other, after a separation of decades, they smiled, ran together and hugged each other like old friends. In other words, the odds are 100% that Madeleine would go on vacation (at least once) with LBJ at Murchison's Hotel Del Charro in California.

Madeleine knew a lot of stuff about LBJ that few others did. For example she knew all about LBJ's relationship with Mary Margaret Wiley. The major biographers - Caro, Dallek, Doris Kearns Goodwin - have shamefully avoided this extremely important relationship of LBJ. Madeleine, jealous of it, knew all about it and told author Noel Twymann about it ... except that an older Madeleine referred to the woman as "Riley." See the appendix of Bloody Treason for Twymann's interview with Madeleine.

Two of Madeleine's closest friends from the 1990's are alive today: Connie Kritzberg and Betty Windsor of the Dallas area. Both had much interaction with Madeleine and confirm, yes, of course, Madeleine was LBJ's girlfriend.

I could go on and on. Madeleine was definitely a key long term mistress of Lyndon Johnson. She had a son Steven with him. The supposed debunkings of Madeleine by Dave Perry are not debunkings at all; they are just pitiful.

LBJ assigned a lawyer to take care of Madeleine. His name was Jerome Ragsdale. I am sure Madeleine was having sex with Ragsdale, too.

Madeleine confirmed to JFK researcher Casey Quinlan that she was indeed a call girl - that his how she personally knew all these older, wealthier, powerful Texas men. Madeleine was an advertising executive by day ... and a call girl by night. She hung out a lot at the Carousel Club - absolutely knew Jack Ruby. She probably was trying to pick up clients at the Carousel Club as well.

Ed Tatro, Betty Windsor & Connie Kritzberg are 3 credible, experienced JFK researchers; they all knew Madeleine extremely well, but these folks stay off the internet so they are not around to set the record straight when it comes up in internet discussions. All 3 of those folks are ardent supporters of Madeleine.

Harry Livingstone, is another one, a man beset by health problems. He also told me he found Madeleine very credible and that is why he used her material.

Edited by Robert Morrow
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There is BIG MONEY in OIL....I'm not xxxxtenya

The known oil reserves in Iraq basically cancel out the USA national debt.

P.S. - I wonder what happened to all that gold Khaddafi had that he was going to use as the basis of his currency to force European nations to use it when buying Libyan Oil?

Actually...the gold is peanuts. The prime thing is - which currency ( little pieces of paper ) are most reguarded.

Edited by David S. Brownlee
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I feel compelled to post an objection to Robert Morrow's remark about Madeleine Brown. Robert, you will likely hearing from Casey Quinlin as you seem to have dramatically mistaken and misrepresented his remarks to you. I'm sure Betty and Connie who were good friends with MB would be appalled at your remark about her being a call girl, as am I. I knew MB farily well at one point and help fund publication of her biography. She worked in a Dallas Ad agency at a time when womens careers were limited, just as Connie worked as a reporter at the same time. To talk about MB picking up tricks at Jacks club is rediculous. Your assumption about her having sex with Ragsdale simply reflects the obsession others have noted here. I'm not sure how all this ties in with current moderation rules but I for one am not about to let you get away with such statements without a factual challenge....hopeful Casey will chime in with his own statement but I'm not sure he is a posting member so ....done... Larry

Edited by Larry Hancock
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Robert, saying anything more would only lead me over the line in moderation - and rightfully so. I think your post is quite enough and everyone will be able to draw their

own conclusions. Anyone in Dallas at the Lancer conference will be able to converse with Betty and Casey to get their take on your remarks - and I'll be happy to share

as well.

I've stated my objection, I'll leave it at that, anyone desiring more can email me privately, Larry

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I feel compelled to post an objection to Robert Morrow's remark about Madeleine Brown. Robert, you will likely hearing from Casey Quinlin as you seem to have dramatically mistaken and misrepresented his remarks to you. I'm sure Betty and Connie who were good friends with MB would be appalled at your remark about her being a call girl, as am I. I knew MB farily well at one point and help fund publication of her biography. She worked in a Dallas Ad agency at a time when womens careers were limited, just as Connie worked as a reporter at the same time. To talk about MB picking up tricks at Jacks club is rediculous. Your assumption about her having sex with Ragsdale simply reflects the obsession others have noted here. I'm not sure how all this ties in with current moderation rules but I for one am not about to let you get away with such statements without a factual challenge....hopeful Casey will chime in with his own statement but I'm not sure he is a posting member so ....done... Larry

Larry, what was your view of Madeleine Brown as a witness? I have no idea if she was LBJ's mistress but I find the idea of Murchison's party very difficult to believe.

Also, what are your thoughts on Jane Wolfe's book, The Murchisons: The Rise and Fall of a Texas Dynasty (1989)? In the book she accepts that Murchison had a corrupt relationship with LBJ. However, she argues that Murchison's relationship with LBJ came to an end when he accepted the offer to be the running-mate of John F. Kennedy: "Many of Texas's richest oilmen had supported Johnson for years with large contributions, but when he accepted the vice presidency under Kennedy, they felt betrayed. Johnson had enormous clout in the Senate, and much of this power was due to these Texas oilmen. During the fifties LBJ breakfasts at Clint's Preston Road home were commonplace. The Texas senator and ten or twelve of the state's richest oilmen would gather for coffee on the front porch, while Johnson gave an overview of what might happen in Congress affecting the oil industry and of the coming election. Johnson would announce which senators needed money and just how much they needed to defeat their opponents. Then Clint Murchison would assign the fund-raising job to one of the men gathered at the breakfast... In return, Johnson was expected to deliver the vote on the depletion allowance, and all other legislation of interest of the oilman."

Wolfe argues that even after LBJ became president, Murchison refused offers to get together again. I find that difficult to believe. Have you seen any evidence that is the case.

One area where Wolfe is wrong concerns the purchasing of the publishers, Henry Holt and Company in 1958. Wolfe claims that he never used it to push his political ideas. However, he told the New York Post: "Before I got them, they published some books that were badly pro-Communist. They had some bad people there.... We just cleared them all out and put some good men in. Sure there were casualties but now we've got a good operation." One of the first book's he published was by his old friend, J. Edgar Hoover. The book, Masters of Deceit: The Story of Communism in America (1958), was an account of the Communist menace and sold over 250,000 copies in hardcover and over 2,000,000 in paperback. It was on the best-seller lists for thirty-one weeks, three of them as the number one non-fiction choice.

William Sullivan was ordered to oversee the project, claimed that as many as eight agents worked full-time on the book for nearly six months. Curt Gentry, the author of J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets (1991) points out Hoover claimed that he intended to give all royalties to the FBI Recreational Association (FBIRA). However, he claims that the "FBIRA was a slush fund, maintained for the use of Hoover, Tolson, and their key aides. It was also a money-laundering operation, so the director would not have to pay taxes on his book royalties." Gentry quotes Sullivan as saying that Hoover "put many thousands of dollars of that book.... into his own pocket, and so did Tolson."

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John, I'll give my opinions but they are mixed - which is why I didn't go near the subject in SWHT even though I dealt with Johnson in perhaps excessive length. I'm realistic about MB's personal life and open to the fact that she had affairs and most likely a child with Johnson - Gary, please no emails, as I said its an open issue with me as is the party...I've learned to let open issues lie and consider other leads far more important in the JFK conspiracy which is why I moved on to NEXUS. Since I accept that there may well have been a relationship I don't toss out MB's comments on hearing wild remarks from LBJ. I also have to say I've heard a tape of very early interviews with MB where the party was mentioned which is much more limited and less dramatic than the story that evolved after people started reinforcing her.

Having said that, I value the remarks as useless even if made. My view (and contempt) for Johnson is such that I don't trust anything the man ever told anybody. He was paranoid, likely clinically, just as Nixon was. As you know from my earlier educational papers here I consider Johnson quite capable of murder but very much a coward at heart...as his war "record" demonstrates. Based on that any wild remarks to MB would have been either spur of the moment Johnson temper, the Texas trip was a political disaster for him and he was totally nuts by Friday, would have said anything he could about JFK and may have been thinking of getting out of politics before he had to spend more time with the Kennedys. Anything about the CIA and Texas oil would have been pure disinformation.

So in the end, since I don't trust anything Johnson ever said any quotes I use for him are strictly to profile his character.

As to Murchison, yes I have seen other sources that would support that view....sorry I cannot supply them but when I was researching Johnson I did go into a lot of Murchison material including the shift of a lot of his business attention out of the state of Texas in the later years of the family. I also ran across a fairly reliable statement that he began refusing calls from President Johnson. The Texas trip reflects how far Johnson himself had sacrificed elements of his political base in Texas and his picking up JFK's social agenda for his own - heck, he and Lady Bird had been chased around in down town Dallas while JFK was president, probably better he stayed away or later just on the ranch.

-- that's the best I can give you, Larry

Edited by Larry Hancock
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I would have to mention Robert F. Kennedy's remarks regarding the whole Hoover/Murchison relationship:

From pg.292 Robert Kennedy: In His Own Words - The Unpublished Recollections of the Kennedy Years.

KENNEDY: Bill Lambert, with whom I worked on the Rackets Committee, who was a reporter and got the Pulitzer Prize

out in Portland, Oregon, in 1957, works for Life Magazine now. He came across a fellow down in Florida now--

who used to be a clerk in a hotel out near the race track where Hoover goes to stay every month. When he left

in 1958-- he'd been there from '53 to '58 -- he took the records with him. They showed that up to that time --

and of course, Hoover has stayed there every year since then -- he stayed in a hundred-dollar-a-day suite

and that the bill at the end of each month was picked up and paid for by the Murchisons.

MARTIN: Really?

KENNEDY: The total for that five-year period was, I think, something like eighty-five hundred dollars--

which I thought was interesting.

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