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Did LBJ order the murder of John Douglas Kinser?


John Simkin

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John Douglas Kinser was the owner of a miniature golf course in Austin, Texas. He was also having an affair with Josefa Johnson, the sister of Lyndon B. Johnson. Josefa was also having a relationship with Mac Wallace, who worked for Johnson at the Department of Agriculture.

According to Barr McClellan, the author of "Blood, Money & Power: How LBJ Killed JFK", Kinser asked Josefa if she could arrange for her brother to loan him some money. Johnson interpreted this as a blackmail threat (Josefa had told Kinser about some of her brother's corrupt activities).

On 22nd October, 1951, Mac Wallace went to Kinser's miniature golf course. After finding Kinser in his golf shop, he shot him several times before escaping in his station wagon. A customer at the golf course had heard the shooting and managed to make a note of Wallace's license plate. The local police force was able to use this information to arrest Wallace.

Wallace was charged with murder but was released on bail after Edward Clark arranged for two of Johnson's financial supporters, M. E. Ruby and Bill Carroll, to post bonds on behalf of the defendant. Johnson's attorney, John Cofer, also agreed to represent Wallace.

On 1st February, 1952, Wallace resigned from his government job in order to distance himself from Lyndon Johnson. His trial began seventeen days later. Wallace did not testify. Cofer admitted his client's guilt but claimed it was an act of revenge as Kinser had been sleeping with Wallace's wife.

The jury found Wallace guilty of "murder with malice afore-thought". Eleven of the jurors were for the death penalty. The twelfth argued for life imprisonment. Judge Charles O. Betts overruled the jury and announced a sentence of five years imprisonment. He suspended the sentence and Wallace was immediately freed.

According to Bill Adler of The Texas Observer, several of the jurors telephoned John Kinser's parents to apologize for agreeing to a "suspended sentence, but said they did so only because threats had been made against their families."

On 9th August, 1984, the lawyer, Douglas Caddy, wrote to Stephen S. Trott at the U.S. Department of Justice. In the letter Caddy claimed that Billie Sol Estes, Lyndon B. Johnson, Mac Wallace and Clifton C. Carter had been involved in the murders of John Kinser, Henry Marshall, George Krutilek, Harold Orr, Ike Rogers, Coleman Wade, Josefa Johnson (she died in 1961), and John F. Kennedy. Caddy added: "Mr. Estes is willing to testify that LBJ ordered these killings, and that he transmitted his orders through Cliff Carter to Mac Wallace, who executed the murders."

In 2003 Barr McClellan published Blood, Money & Power: How LBJ Killed JFK. In the book McClellan argues that Lyndon B. Johnson and Edward Clark were involved in the planning and cover-up of the murder of John Kinser.

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John Douglas Kinser was the owner of a miniature golf course in Austin, Texas. He was also having an affair with Josefa Johnson, the sister of Lyndon B. Johnson. Josefa was also having a relationship with Mac Wallace, who worked for Johnson at the Department of Agriculture.

According to Barr McClellan, the author of "Blood, Money & Power: How LBJ Killed JFK", Kinser asked Josefa if she could arrange for her brother to loan him some money. Johnson interpreted this as a blackmail threat (Josefa had told Kinser about some of her brother's corrupt activities).

On 22nd October, 1951, Mac Wallace went to Kinser's miniature golf course. After finding Kinser in his golf shop, he shot him several times before escaping in his station wagon. A customer at the golf course had heard the shooting and managed to make a note of Wallace's license plate. The local police force was able to use this information to arrest Wallace.

Wallace was charged with murder but was released on bail after Edward Clark arranged for two of Johnson's financial supporters, M. E. Ruby and Bill Carroll, to post bonds on behalf of the defendant. Johnson's attorney, John Cofer, also agreed to represent Wallace.

On 1st February, 1952, Wallace resigned from his government job in order to distance himself from Lyndon Johnson. His trial began seventeen days later. Wallace did not testify. Cofer admitted his client's guilt but claimed it was an act of revenge as Kinser had been sleeping with Wallace's wife.

The jury found Wallace guilty of "murder with malice afore-thought". Eleven of the jurors were for the death penalty. The twelfth argued for life imprisonment. Judge Charles O. Betts overruled the jury and announced a sentence of five years imprisonment. He suspended the sentence and Wallace was immediately freed.

According to Bill Adler of The Texas Observer, several of the jurors telephoned John Kinser's parents to apologize for agreeing to a "suspended sentence, but said they did so only because threats had been made against their families."

On 9th August, 1984, the lawyer, Douglas Caddy, wrote to Stephen S. Trott at the U.S. Department of Justice. In the letter Caddy claimed that Billie Sol Estes, Lyndon B. Johnson, Mac Wallace and Clifton C. Carter had been involved in the murders of John Kinser, Henry Marshall, George Krutilek, Harold Orr, Ike Rogers, Coleman Wade, Josefa Johnson (she died in 1961), and John F. Kennedy. Caddy added: "Mr. Estes is willing to testify that LBJ ordered these killings, and that he transmitted his orders through Cliff Carter to Mac Wallace, who executed the murders."

In 2003 Barr McClellan published Blood, Money & Power: How LBJ Killed JFK. In the book McClellan argues that Lyndon B. Johnson and Edward Clark were involved in the planning and cover-up of the murder of John Kinser.

John, Do you think that President Bush has Barr McClellan's son working for him purely as a slap in the face to the Johnson name, or has the present Mr. Mcclellan earned his place on GW's staff? Much has been said about this appointment, both here and on JFK Lancer.

Terry Adams

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The fact that LBJ apparently had all these folks murdered before he became president has me more convinced than ever that he was a major player in having JFK killed.

Ordering people killed is like anything else. Once you get used to it, it's natural to want the next time to be bigger and better. What bigger thrill for a serial killer than to pull off a presidential assassination?

That's oversimplifying, of course, because LBJ did not do it gratuitously, just for the thrill of killing. Political desperation drove him to it, combined with his ruthless, career-long lust for power and the various motives of his co-conspirators. But in the process I would think he enjoyed it, and participated without thinking twice.

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Some interesting testimony was given during the Wallace trial by FBI Agent Joseph Schott. Schott said he gave Wallace a pistol in 1946 which was subsequently used to kill Kisner. It was a German made Schmeisser which Schott took possession of during his time in Germany during WW2.

Schott also claimed to have known Wallace for some 12 years. After giving testimony and as Schott left the courtroom, he paused to shake Wallace's hand.

As a sidebar; it was Schott who in 1959 had to drive J. Edgar Hoover from Dallas to Austin without making a left hand turn. Hoover had been shaken up previously by a minor accident in which his vehicle was side-swiped making a left hand turn. Bizarre to say the least.

FWIW.

James

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Members might be interested in what J. Evetts Haley (A Texan Looks at Lyndon, 1964) had to say about the Kinser case.

At mid-afternoon on October 22, 1951, thirty-year old "Mac" Wallace drove up to the Pitch and Putt course, walked in on "Doug" Kinser at the keeper's house and shot him dead. Wallace fled, but was caught, indicted for murder with "malice aforethought," and released on $30,000 bond. Strangely, no counsel appeared for him at first; only William E. Carroll, "a university friend," who somehow arranged the bond - later reduced to $10,000; while Carroll refused to say who the counsel would be.

Strangely too, District Attorney Bob Long called in a psychiatrist. Wallace, arrogant throughout the hearing, refused to see him. Still with no attorney, but with his "University friend" contending he was being held "without cause," and with bond posted, District Judge Charles A. Betts issued a writ of habeas corpus and released him.

He was brought to trial in the 98th District Court of Travis County before Judge Betts, with John Cofer, Johnson's every ready and able lawyer in times of trouble, and Polk Shelton, as attorneys for the defense. Cofer was not unduly searching hi his examination of jurors, but qualified each on his attitude toward the "suspended sentence law".

The case went to trial. District Attorney Bob Long - notwithstanding the identity of the car, a bloody shirt and a cartridge of the same caliber as used in the shooting, found in Wallace's possession, and witnesses who heard the shots and saw the departure of a man who fit Wallace's description - described it as "a near perfect murder."

Wallace did not take the stand. No evidence was presented to suggest cause or extenuating circumstances. Cofer simply filed a brief, one-page motion for an instructed verdict, pleading that there was no evidence upon which the State could "legally base a judgment of guilt." Long said nothing whatever in rebuttal. After less than two hours of testimony which was shut off so "abruptly" that it "left the packed courtroom with jaws ajar." Long urged the jury to "punish punish Wallace in whatever degree you can agree upon."

Thus after one of the briefest and most perfunctory trials of a prominent murder case on record, even in Texas, the jury nonetheless found, March 27, 1952, that Wallace was, as charged, guilty "of murder with malice aforethought." Its penalty, a five-year suspended sentence - for murder in the first degree.

Long was on his way out of the courtroom while the verdict was being read. His staff seemed "dumbfounded," but his own comment to the press was no less strange than his action: "You win cases and you lose them... usually everything happens for the best." Somewhat understandable, therefore, was the comment of The Austin Statesman that this case, "marked from the start to finish by the unusual," had left the people of Austin shocked and "quizzical.''

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Some interesting testimony was given during the Wallace trial by FBI Agent Joseph Schott. Schott said he gave Wallace a pistol in 1946 which was subsequently used to kill Kisner. It was a German made Schmeisser which Schott took possession of during his time in Germany during WW2.

Schott also claimed to have known Wallace for some 12 years. After giving testimony and as Schott left the courtroom, he paused to shake Wallace's hand.

A slightly different account is given in James Day's book Captain Clint Peoples Texas Ranger (page 229) and Wallace Charlton's, Unsolved Texas Mysteries (page 122). Both these authors claim that On 10th October, 1951, Wallace travelled to Fort Worth to collect the gun from Schott. This is important as it was argued at the time that Wallace had killed Kisner in an act of passion. In fact, it seems he planned the murder sometime before it happened.

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  • 10 months later...
Nigel Turner once told me about someone who introduced himself as one of the former jury members on the Malcolm Wallace murder trial. He had carried with him a burden of guilt because of the outcome of the trial, but explained that the jury members, each one, had been threatened. Describing the period of time during the trial, he said that one evening during dinner, he and his wife were interupted by two well dressed men who knocked at his door. As he responded to the callers, he noticed that one of them held a shotgun in his hands. After cocking the gun, the visitor pointed the weapon and the man and pulled the trigger. Click. The weapon was empty. "This gun could just as easily have been loaded" warned the visitor. "Be very careful about your decision" And then the men were gone.

These kind of men were plentiful, and Johnson had the knack of finding them and keeping them loyal.

Welcome to the Forum. I am a great admirer of your work on Mac Wallace. (Would you be willing to discuss 'The Men on the Sixth Floor' on the Forum?).

The jury found Wallace guilty. Wasn't it the judge who gave him 5 years probation? That wouldn't be the fault of the jury. It looks to me like it was the judge who gave in to a threat (or accepted an offer he couldn't refuse).

True. The judge, Charles O. Betts, was clearly under the control of LBJ. According to Bill Adler of The Texas Observer, several of the jurors telephoned John Kinser's parents to apologize for agreeing to a "suspended sentence, but said they did so only because threats had been made against their families."

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A good thread.

J Evetts Haley's A TEXAN LOOKS AT LYNDON

was in my library years ago. Cliff Carter and Mac Wallace

do appear to be politically connected serial killers on the Texas scene

during the Lyndon Johnson heydey.............

John Douglas Kinser's killing and outcome is entirely enlightening, judicially.

This case directs critical thinking and resists patriotic nostrums.

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The fact that Barr McClellan's son Scott was W's pressman has zero to do with Barr's book. Barr had been working on that book many years before Scott became so connected. Scott and his brothers grew up with their very political mother here in Austin. Sometimes there ARE coincidences in this case and this is one of them. LBJ utilized Mac Wallace to kill many times. Kinsner is the first we are aware of because it was so in the open.

I, like our moderator, hope that Glenn Sample will discuss his work here. I have bought The Men On The Sixth Floor for many people. Portions of this work are also available on the net.

Dawn

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Nigel Turner once told me about someone who introduced himself as one of the former jury members on the Malcolm Wallace murder trial. He had carried with him a burden of guilt because of the outcome of the trial, but explained that the jury members, each one, had been threatened. Describing the period of time during the trial, he said that one evening during dinner, he and his wife were interupted by two well dressed men who knocked at his door. As he responded to the callers, he noticed that one of them held a shotgun in his hands. After cocking the gun, the visitor pointed the weapon and the man and pulled the trigger. Click. The weapon was empty. "This gun could just as easily have been loaded" warned the visitor. "Be very careful about your decision" And then the men were gone.

These kind of men were plentiful, and Johnson had the knack of finding them and keeping them loyal.

Glen Sample

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Nigel Turner once told me about someone who introduced himself as one of the former jury members on the Malcolm Wallace murder trial. He had carried with him a burden of guilt because of the outcome of the trial, but explained that the jury members, each one, had been threatened. Describing the period of time during the trial, he said that one evening during dinner, he and his wife were interupted by two well dressed men who knocked at his door. As he responded to the callers, he noticed that one of them held a shotgun in his hands. After cocking the gun, the visitor pointed the weapon and the man and pulled the trigger. Click. The weapon was empty. "This gun could just as easily have been loaded" warned the visitor. "Be very careful about your decision" And then the men were gone.

These kind of men were plentiful, and Johnson had the knack of finding them and keeping them loyal.

Glen Sample

John:

Of course he did and if one is to believe the Estes documents- (the correspondance between Attorney Doug Caddy and then Asst. Attorney General Stephen Trott)- LBJ had Mac Wallace kill a lot more folks for him. Many believe he even had his own son killed- the mother Madeline Brown- certainly thought this.

Forum readers who have not read Glen Sample's "The Men on The Sixth Floor", should order it. It's a real page turner, and a great introduction to Mac Wallace. It is in this book that I saw for the first time the Estes documents. Then go on to Barr McClellan's Blood Money and Power, How LBJ Killed JFK" . (Barr is in the process of updating and has some new leads, he told me a few days ago).

Dawn

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Nigel Turner once told me about someone who introduced himself as one of the former jury members on the Malcolm Wallace murder trial. He had carried with him a burden of guilt because of the outcome of the trial, but explained that the jury members, each one, had been threatened. Describing the period of time during the trial, he said that one evening during dinner, he and his wife were interupted by two well dressed men who knocked at his door. As he responded to the callers, he noticed that one of them held a shotgun in his hands. After cocking the gun, the visitor pointed the weapon and the man and pulled the trigger. Click. The weapon was empty. "This gun could just as easily have been loaded" warned the visitor. "Be very careful about your decision" And then the men were gone.

These kind of men were plentiful, and Johnson had the knack of finding them and keeping them loyal.

Glen Sample

John:

Of course he did and if one is to believe the Estes documents- (the correspondance between Attorney Doug Caddy and then Asst. Attorney General Stephen Trott)- LBJ had Mac Wallace kill a lot more folks for him. Many believe he even had his own son killed- the mother Madeline Brown- certainly thought this.

Forum readers who have not read Glen Sample's "The Men on The Sixth Floor", should order it. It's a real page turner, and a great introduction to Mac Wallace. It is in this book that I saw for the first time the Estes documents. Then go on to Barr McClellan's Blood Money and Power, How LBJ Killed JFK" . (Barr is in the process of updating and has some new leads, he told me a few days ago).

Dawn

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