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Josefa Johnson


John Simkin

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One of the most controversial aspects of Billie Sol Estes' "confession" is the claim that LBJ was behind the death of his sister, Josefa Johnson.

Josefa Johnson was born in 1912. She was a student at San Marcos and after marrying early was divorced in 1937. Three years later she married a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army. The marriage ended in divorce in 1945.

Josefa took a keen interest in politics and helped her brother in his successful 1948 senatorial campaign. She had a reputation for wild behaviour and was said to work for Hattie Valdez's private club. Josefa was also an alcoholic and was admitted to hospital several times with health problems.

It was rumoured that Josefa Johnson had affairs with John Kinser and Mac Wallace. Kinser opened a golf course in Austin. 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 B. 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."

Josefa Johnson died of a cerebral hemorrhage on 25th December, 1961. Despite state law, no autopsy was conducted. Twenty-three years later 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 Cliff Carter had been involved in the murders of several people including Josefa Johnson.

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On 14th April, 1948, Josefa had an illegitimate child (Rodney Moss). He died, aged 40, in 1989.

John,

At the time of Josefa's death, wasn't she married to James Moss? Moss I believe had a curious ability to know where to drill for oil.

James

She was but they did not marry until 1955. What can you tell me about Moss?

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

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On 14th April, 1948, Josefa had an illegitimate child (Rodney Moss). He died, aged 40, in 1989.

John,

At the time of Josefa's death, wasn't she married to James Moss? Moss I believe had a curious ability to know where to drill for oil.

James

She was but they did not marry until 1955. What can you tell me about Moss?

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

Not a lot unfortunately. I remember reading about this almost psychic ability Moss allegedly possessed to know where oil was untapped. I believe it was in a column (Tolbert's Texas) written by Frank Tolbert.

James

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  • 3 years later...

On 14th April, 1948, Josefa had an illegitimate child (Rodney Moss). He died, aged 40, in 1989.

John,

At the time of Josefa's death, wasn't she married to James Moss? Moss I believe had a curious ability to know where to drill for oil.

James

She was but they did not marry until 1955. What can you tell me about Moss?

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

Not a lot unfortunately. I remember reading about this almost psychic ability Moss allegedly possessed to know where oil was untapped. I believe it was in a column (Tolbert's Texas) written by Frank Tolbert.

James

Josefa married in 1943. Her husband was Willard White, who had been an engineer in Victoria, Texas before she married him. He was already married when he lived there to a woman named Edith Mae Rowe. They had a daughter named Beverly White, who later married someone named Conditt. Beverly Conditt was mentioned in a book by socialistic anthropologist Leslie A. White as his niece.

Victoria, Texas is in South Texas and was the small town in which one of Brown & Root's subsidiaries was located--Victoria Gravel--the entity through which much of the illegal campaign funds were transferred to LBJ by the Brown family corporation that later was sold to Halliburton.

Willard White's father was also an engineer, who raised his family without their mother, according to the biography of Leslie White.

Much rumor and innuendo has been tossed around about Josefa's wild and woolly shenanigans as a drunk or prostitute at Miss Hattie's Place in south Austin. It was a favored hangout for Texas legislators when the lawmakers were in biannual session, but Miss Hattie also had a place in Cuero, not far from Victoria. If Josefa worked for her, it's possible it would have been there rather than in Austin, and she may have met Willard at that locale. Both places were eventually destroyed by fire and Hattie died, leaving a fortune to a daughter who was a nun.

As for Josefa, she did live for a time in Austin one street north of where her sister, Mrs. Birge Alexander, lived. Birge was regional head of the Civil Aeronautics Board based in Fort Worth before he retired to Austin. In 1945 a San Antonio newspaper (rival of one for which a Johnson relative, George W. Baines, worked) mentioned that Josefa had given a dinner party featuring linens and silver that had been looted from Adolph Hitler's castle in Berchtesgaden, Germany. The article has been uploaded to another thread in the forum relating to Boris Pash, who was Col. Willard White's commanding officer in the 1269th Combat Engineers, which was the fighting unit involved in the Alsos Mission to capture German uranium and other materials related to the atomic bomb.

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On 14th April, 1948, Josefa had an illegitimate child (Rodney Moss). He died, aged 40, in 1989.

Her son's name was Rodney Baines White but was sometimes called Moss after Josefa and Willard White divorced and she was remarried to Jim Moss of Fredericksburg, Texas. It was sometimes stated that Rodney was adopted by Josefa, that he was actually the natural son of Sam Houston Johnson. All I can find is that he was supposedly born in Biloxi, Miss. between the years she married White and Moss. Very little is know about LBJ's younger brother Sam Houston, though it has been reported that he was in O.S.S. during WWII.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 14th April, 1948, Josefa had an illegitimate child (Rodney Moss). He died, aged 40, in 1989.

Her son's name was Rodney Baines White but was sometimes called Moss after Josefa and Willard White divorced and she was remarried to Jim Moss of Fredericksburg, Texas. It was sometimes stated that Rodney was adopted by Josefa, that he was actually the natural son of Sam Houston Johnson. All I can find is that he was supposedly born in Biloxi, Miss. between the years she married White and Moss. Very little is know about LBJ's younger brother Sam Houston, though it has been reported that he was in O.S.S. during WWII.

This obituary is taken from the Dallas Morning News of 12-26-1961

In the book, LBJ Architect of American Ambition page 502, the LBJ siblings are listed as....

Lucia Huffman, Josefa Hermine, Rebeka Luruth, Lyndon Baines and Sam Houston Johnson.

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On 14th April, 1948, Josefa had an illegitimate child (Rodney Moss). He died, aged 40, in 1989.

Her son's name was Rodney Baines White but was sometimes called Moss after Josefa and Willard White divorced and she was remarried to Jim Moss of Fredericksburg, Texas. It was sometimes stated that Rodney was adopted by Josefa, that he was actually the natural son of Sam Houston Johnson. All I can find is that he was supposedly born in Biloxi, Miss. between the years she married White and Moss. Very little is know about LBJ's younger brother Sam Houston, though it has been reported that he was in O.S.S. during WWII.

This obituary is taken from the Dallas Morning News of 12-26-1961

In the book, LBJ Architect of American Ambition page 502, the LBJ siblings are listed as....

Lucia Huffman, Josefa Hermine, Rebeka Luruth, Lyndon Baines and Sam Houston Johnson.

Ron

Here is a photo, which is not all that clear, but that is Josepha on the left, and their Mother next to LBJ, and then Lady Bird...

nothing re his brother.or other siblings........etc....

They are all buried at the Johnson Farm, in the family plot........also one of he and L.B on their honeymoon...FWIW......

B........

Edited by Bernice Moore
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On 14th April, 1948, Josefa had an illegitimate child (Rodney Moss). He died, aged 40, in 1989.

Her son's name was Rodney Baines White but was sometimes called Moss after Josefa and Willard White divorced and she was remarried to Jim Moss of Fredericksburg, Texas. It was sometimes stated that Rodney was adopted by Josefa, that he was actually the natural son of Sam Houston Johnson. All I can find is that he was supposedly born in Biloxi, Miss. between the years she married White and Moss. Very little is know about LBJ's younger brother Sam Houston, though it has been reported that he was in O.S.S. during WWII.

This obituary is taken from the Dallas Morning News of 12-26-1961

In the book, LBJ Architect of American Ambition page 502, the LBJ siblings are listed as....

Lucia Huffman, Josefa Hermine, Rebeka Luruth, Lyndon Baines and Sam Houston Johnson.

Ron

Here is a photo, which is not all that clear, but that is Josepha on the left, and their Mother next to LBJ, and then Lady Bird...

nothing re his brother.or other siblings........etc....

They are all buried at the Johnson Farm, in the family plot........also one of he and L.B on their honeymoon...FWIW......

B........

Thanks for that Bernice, do you happen to know where Lucia and Rebeka lived circa 1963?

Nothing urgent....

BTW It's Robert....not Ron...but since I like you so much you can call me Ol' Whatshisname...lol

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On 14th April, 1948, Josefa had an illegitimate child (Rodney Moss). He died, aged 40, in 1989.

Her son's name was Rodney Baines White but was sometimes called Moss after Josefa and Willard White divorced and she was remarried to Jim Moss of Fredericksburg, Texas. It was sometimes stated that Rodney was adopted by Josefa, that he was actually the natural son of Sam Houston Johnson. All I can find is that he was supposedly born in Biloxi, Miss. between the years she married White and Moss. Very little is know about LBJ's younger brother Sam Houston, though it has been reported that he was in O.S.S. during WWII.

This obituary is taken from the Dallas Morning News of 12-26-1961

In the book, LBJ Architect of American Ambition page 502, the LBJ siblings are listed as....

Lucia Huffman, Josefa Hermine, Rebeka Luruth, Lyndon Baines and Sam Houston Johnson.

Ron

Here is a photo, which is not all that clear, but that is Josepha on the left, and their Mother next to LBJ, and then Lady Bird...

nothing re his brother.or other siblings........etc....

They are all buried at the Johnson Farm, in the family plot........also one of he and L.B on their honeymoon...FWIW......

B........

Thanks for that Bernice, do you happen to know where Lucia and Rebeka lived circa 1963?

Nothing urgent....

BTW It's Robert....not Ron...but since I like you so much you can call me Ol' Whatshisname...lol

Hi:There Robert Whatshisname: :D

Anudder Spullin mistook..typo , sorry bout dat...and or ...more grey cells gone... :blink:

Nothing on the sisters off hand, but I do intend to get up there and have a gander through the LBJ library shelves......As I find any information re LBJ interesting......I will post if any found....

I did search but nothing came up..

This is "Be NIce Day" on the Forum, I like you so much also...... :lol:

Signed.

Heroverthere....

Thanks.....

B.

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Mrs. Birge Davis (Lucia Johnson) Alexander

Address: 2508 Jarratt Av, Austin, Texas 78703-0801 (1993)

Her husband was Birge Davis Alexander, born in 1912 in Minnesota. His father was Kay Lambert Alexander, Jr. who was a civil engineer doing road paving (like Herman Brown) living in Uvalde in 1930, but in 1920 Birge and his siblings lived with Kay's unmarried sister Donna Alexander while their father was working as a painter in Oklahoma. He died in Travis County (Austin) in 1989.

Birge's aunt Donna Alexander was born in Kentucky in 1879. In 1900, however, she lived in Travis County, Texas where her father was a surgeon. Her mother was Mary E. Alexander, born in Kentucky in 1853. She had a younger sister named Lillian/Lillie, whose married name was Law and who also lived with the family.

They lived in the same precinct and district (south of Riverside between Lamar and S. Congress) in 1900 as the family of Polk Shelton: John E. Shelton, a lawyer in 1900, would likely have been in the same social group with Dr. Alexander's family, the grandfather of the man Lucia Johnson married in 1933. Polk Shelton was born in October 1900; possibly Dr. Alexander, a surgeon in the area at the time, delivered him. The Sheltons lived many years west of S. Congress on Live Oak Street just north of W. Oltorf. In 1930 Polk was married to Nellie and living at 2107 Newton in the same precinct.

The Sheltons are mentioned in Robert Caro's biography.

-----------------

Fitchburg Sentinel June 27, 1967

Navy Nephew

AUSTIN, Tex. (AP) - Rodney White, a nephew of President Johnson, has joined the Navy Reserve for a six-year enlistment.

White, 19, is the son of the late Col. and Mrs. Willard White, according to the Austin Naval Reserve Training Center which made the announcement Monday. His mother was the former Josefa Johnson, the President's sister, the Navy records showed. He will serve on active duty for two years after a year of intensive training at the center.

------------

By Garth Jones, Associated Press writer, Sept. 29, 1967

AUSTIN, Tex. (AP) — President Lyndon B. Johnson's side of the family has a predominant family trait: They let him do the talking, all of it Despite the millions of word printed and broadcast about the President, many persons do not know that he has two sisters and a brother. Most of those who do, know very little more

than that. "It's nobody else's business what the President's family does," said an Austin spokesman for the President when asked merely where a kinsman of Johnson now lives. A close relative said Johnson's sisters and his brother feel that the President is the newsmaker and they should stay out of the picture.

Most queries to the White House staff about details of the LBJ family are answered with: "That is considered a private family matter." Johnson's parents, Sam Ealy

Johnson Jr. and Miss Rebekah Baines, were married Aug. 20, 1907, at Fredericksburg in west central Texas. They set up housekeeping in a small house on the north bank of the Pedernales River near Stonewall, about 16 miles east of Fredericksburg. The first of their five children Lyndon Barnes Johnson, was born there Aug. 27, 1908. The others, in order of birth, were Rebekah, now Mrs. Oscar Bobbitt of Austin; Josefa, who died in 1962 as Mrs. James B. Moss of Fredericksburg; Sam Houston Johnson of Austin, and Lucia, now Mrs. Birge Davis Alexander of Memphis, Tenn. The President's father died in 1937, his mother in 1958. The remaining members of the President's family shy away from publicity.

In a rare interview last year in Columbia, S.C., Mrs. Bobbitt remarked: "Everywhere I've gone, I've had the problem of being Lyndon's sister. Since he's gotten to be President, I've given up—it's bigger than both of us."

Mrs. Bobbitt does not see much of her famous brother. There usually are a couple of visits to the White House each year and a family reunion and Christmas at the ranch, Mrs. Bobbitt's husband is senior vice president of KTBC Television in Austin, which is owned by the Lyndon B. Johnson family interests, and also is radio station manager and general sales manager. He has been with KTBC since 1950. The Bobbitts own a large hilltop house in one of Austin's most expensive neighborhoods and are (prominent in civic and social affairs.

The Bobbitts' 19-year-old son, Phillip, attended Princeton University but left to join Volunteers in Service to America—VISTA. He was severely beaten by a gang of youths soon after being assigned to a VISTA job in Venice, Calif., earlier this year and returned to Austin for medical treatment. Phillip refused to discuss the attack in detail and went back to Venice as soon as his doctor allowed. Mrs. Alexander's husband is area manager for the Federal Aviation Agency in Memphis.

Memphis reporters say they can't even obtain Mrs. Alexander's telephone number. Newsmen were told by Alexander that his wife "guards her privacy and refuses under any circumstances to discuss her brother, other members of her family, their private life or such that might be published."

The President's only brother calls Austin home; but residents seldom see or hear of him. One published account says he received a law degree from Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tenn., but never practiced law. He became a member of his brother's congressional staff in 1937. About 1958, Sam Houston Johnson suffered a fractured hip in a fall. The injury resulted in a physical disability and led to his retirement. Newspaper files show the brother was divorced in 1963 from Mary M. Johnson, whom he had married at Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1955. They had been separated since 1960. There were no children. Sam Houston Johnson lived with the Bobbitts for several years after 1960. The Austin spokesman for the President said recently that he "just couldn't say" if the brother still lived with the Bobbitts. In 1964, he was reported to be in a hospital at Myrtle Beach, S.C., suffering from pneumonia and a kidney infection.

-------

A Sept. 26, 1958 story which appeared in the San Antonio Express concerned the son of Samuel Houston Johnson (born in Austin on 10-9-1942) from an earlier marriage. His mother had divorced Sam Houston Johnson after their separation during WWII and changed the boy's name from Samuel Summers Johnson to Creighton Summers George when he was legally adopted by his stepfather. His mother was Albertine Summers, who had been a congressional secretary. They also had an older daughter named Josefa Roxanne. According to this article, the daughter had been named in honor of Sam Houston Johnson's sister, "now Mrs. James B. Moss, wife of a Fredericksburg, Tex. minister."

The story also states that Sam's new wife is the former Mary Michelson of Austin and San Antonio.

The boy had learned of his real father and had come to Washington, D.C. to visit--staying in the Potomac Plaza Apts. with them.

--------

Rebekah Luruth Johnson

Marriage to Oscar Price Bobbit, Jr.

Monterey, Mexico --1941 10 May at Age: 30

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http://books.google.com/books?id=_9sImYb5e...lt&resnum=2

Nazi plunder

By Kenneth D. Alford

----------------

http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/goldp11.html

One of Goring’s field Marshall batons was taken by General [boris] Patch. Upon his death it was placed in the West Point Military Museum. Lieutenant Eckberg took Goring’s second baton along with other items and mailed them to his mother in Chicago. Eckberg remained in Germany. His mother sold a gold medallion to a jeweler, who then placed an ad. The US Customs read the ad and recovered the medallion, the baton, and the other items the lieutenant had mailed home. Many other personal items were pillaged by soldiers, such as Goring’s dagger and sword. However, Lieutenant Colonel Willard White was probably the most prolific looter at the Berchtesgaden. He helped himself to a large collection of Hitler’s silverware and crystal items, mailing them home to his wife, the sister of Ladybird [sic] Johnson.91

==========

http://www.geneseo.edu/~leary/1269thECB/history.html

The battalion was activated at Camp Chaffee, AR on 30 March 1944.

A senior cadre was organized under the command of Major Willard White, and in April a core unit of 18-year-old ASTP volunteers and Army Air Corps trainees arrived for five months of engineer basic training. Many of that group were promoted to round out NCO cadre vacancies, after which replacements were brought in to fill the unit to T/O strength. The battalion moved by train to Camp Kilmer, NJ, arriving 18 Oct. 1944.

The battalion sailed unescorted from New York harbor aboard a converted luxury liner, the SS Mariposa, on 27 October, docking in Marseille, France on 6 Nov. 1944, after passing through a great storm. The unit marched to CP 2, a Mistral-buffeted, miserably cold staging area near Aix-en-Provence, spending three weeks in advanced training, demolitions mostly, (in which one trainee was killed) while waiting for equipment and vehicles. The battalion was now part of the U.S. Seventh Army....The 1269th was now functioning as combat arm of the Alsos Mission, the Military Intelligence assault force, commanded by Colonel Boris Pash, which was directed against the Nazi atomic weaponry program. In the final rush to seize the German atomic research center at Haigerloch, Alsos and the 1269th ECB, less Company B, crossed through the French First Army's spearhead column (which was moving on Sigmaringen and Stuttgart, contrary to Sixth Army Group command.)

On 22 April at Haigerloch, and for six days thereafter in the towns of Hechingen, Bisingen, Tailfingen, and Thanheim, the 1269th ECB participated in taking atomic scientists into custody, seizing laboratory records and equipment, and securing uranium, heavy water, and other items and materials important to the U.S./British Manhattan Project.

Leaving the Alsos Mission on 28 April, the battalion became one of the first combat units to enter Munich, advancing with Company C, 30th Reg't., of the 3rd Infantry Division. Elements of the battalion were among the first troops to come upon the concentration camp at Dachau. ...

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Regarding Linda Minor's statement that "Very little is know about LBJ's younger brother Sam Houston, though it has been reported that he was in O.S.S. during WWII" a few weeks ago, I stumbled across a couple of newspaper clippings while browsing in the LBJ Mausoleum (Library) last year. Here's the first, having to do with passing bad checks in Myrtle Beach, I think it was in Oct. 1966

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