Larry Hancock

John, that's great background information and certainly fleshes out elements of the Baker influence pedaling and scandal. Do I understand that you are saying that political fund raising was going on directly for the Kennedy's and that Jack and Bobby were actively covering up elements of that as it became exposed - first sending Stockdale overseas and then McCloskey? Is that correct... since up to this point we would have thought that Johnson was the primary person at risk and that it was just greed/influence pedaling - and the Kennedy's only politically exposed through Baker and Johnson?

And I'm not sure I follow you on how this gave Stockdale an insight into a conspriacy to kill JFK? Plus I'm completely lost on the last part - are you saying Stockdale was a threat to the Kennedy's and after the assassination the Kennedy family had him eliminated?

Or that Baker had him eliminated, or Johnson or exactly whom? - and why since Johnson was in power and would surely be able to derail the investigation further?

...sorry, looks like I'm lost on several of your points... Larry

In his book, The Dark Side of Camelot, Seymour Hersh interviews Grant Stockdale’s son. Grant Stockdale Jr. provides some interesting insights into the events surrounding the assassination of JFK.

Grant claims that his father had taken part with JFK in private sex parties at the Carlyle Hotel in New York (1962). Stockdale was invited to the White House at the beginning of November. JFK told Stockdale “I need you to raise some dough – fifty thousand dollars.” “Why me?” he replied. “Because I need it and I count on you to keep it quiet”. “What’s it for?” “It’s for personal use.”

For further details of these events see my seminar on LBJ and the JFK Assassination.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...opic=2310&st=45

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John, I'd like to know a lot more about the sources for some of those remarks about sex parties and collecting bag money; if JFK trusted Stockdale and its true then Stockdale apparently was not a man to keep secrets. On the other hand its such great gossip and sounds so much like Bobby Baker that I'll remain skeptical unless someone can dig up who and when and where it actually came from from Stockdale to the son or others.

However I can comment on why Stockdale had ample reason to be worried about Baker. Stockdale had operated a vending company that seems to have been the prototype for Baker's ServeUCorp. And Stockdale's company had gotten into legal trouble and one of Stockdale's associates had gotten into the ServeUCorp thing with Bobby....at least that's how I remember it. And the Congressional Committees were very interested in that fellow and his background. If the investigation had really expanded I suspect Stockdale had every reason to anticipate some time on the stand himself - which would have refloated the problems he had been earlier and caused him all sorts of trouble.

John, nothing on that one, a partial list of the companies that Phillips might have contactted would include:

United Fruit, Lone Star Cement, Freeport Sulphur, Chase Manhatten Bank, King Ranch, Standard Oil, Hilton Hotels, The Texas Company and International Harvester.

I say that because all had been doing business in Cuba, all had been subject to solicited for "security payments" by Castro with some of their employees and property held hostage and all are listed in CIA and State Department memos as having vested interests in Cuba. The Cuban companies with operations in New York are a separate list, included on it would be the Cuban Sugar Institute.

I can say for sure that Phillips received introductions to Kleberg at King Ranch and to Freeport Sulphur...beyond that its still a matter of research.

As to Phillips, he did have contact with rich Texans but those were primarily people who had business interests in Cuba before Castro - Kleberg is an example -perhaps even more connections to the old established Cuba sugar money which had moved to New York City after Castro's revolution.  While some of Phillips exile surrogates seem to have tried to collect money from rich Texans there is little sign of Phillips himself doing that sort of thing. 

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Earl E. T. Smith was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Cuba (1957-59). Active in right-wing anti-Castro Cuban Exile groups in Florida, he was also director of U.S. Sugar Corporation. He was also married to the woman who was JFK's long-term mistress (1944-63). Any possible connection?

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

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John, I can't say that I have found any concrete indication of those kinds of connections. Morales was reportedly associated with certain gambling crime figures and apparently had been since his time in Havana, that had escalated on his return to Florida and involvement in assassination projects including contact with Roselli. Roselli's biographers make a case for Morales having a lot of contacts with folks in Las Vegas.

As to Phillips, he did have contact with rich Texans but those were primarily people who had business interests in Cuba before Castro - Kleberg is an example -perhaps even more connections to the old established Cuba sugar money which had moved to New York City after Castro's revolution. While some of Phillips exile surrogates seem to have tried to collect money from rich Texans there is little sign of Phillips himself doing that sort of thing.

As a general comment on character, its hard for me seeing a very political person such as Phillips "taking a contract"; on the other hand Morales was known to combine doing the right anti-Communist thing with making some money on the side as his due (sort of a high risk bonus), at least that is the way his friend in Arizona describes it.

No John, not really. Morales connections were primarily to gambling types, first in Havana and then in Vegas. Phillips did have some minor oil connections in Texas where he and his family owned some leases but there's no sign that he was a known quantity in the oil business - what we do know for sure that Phillips did make contacts with people who were willing to make contributions to the Anti-Castro cause. That included Kleberg of King Ranch in Texas and some other individuals in New Orleans. Primarily these were people who had been doing business in Cuba while Phillips was stationed there; there is a list of some of the companies in my 2004 supplement, in the appendix "The WAVE way".

There are some suggestions that Phillips may have approached other people doing off the books fund raising for projects perhaps not on the official CIA task list but that is very speculative at present and again, the individuals would primarily have been those with pre-Castro business holdings in Cuba.

What I was probably trying to say to you is that Phillips can be associated with a lot of movers including very wealthy people in Texas but that  personally I can't connect the dots to specifically to invdividuals above the three names above - not in a way to satisfy myself at least.

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Any evidence that Phillips or Morales were connected in anyway with George Brown and the Suite 8F group? The name comes from the room in the Lamar Hotel in Houston where they held their meetings. It was this group that was giving LBJ his orders before 1960. LBJ tried to distance himself from this group when he became vice president. (They had been opposed to this move as they thought it would reduce his power ).

The Suite 8F are discussed in some detail in Dan Briody’s excellent new book, The Halliburton Agenda. As Briody points out, members of this group did very well out of his presidency. For example, George Brown’s company, Brown & Root, was taken over by Halliburton and became the main contractor in Vietnam. This of course was the start of Halliburton’s profitable contracts with the US government.

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Stan, I think that I should probably go on record that although there is every evidence that David Phillips was a man who could make his own decisions, was pretty fantically anti-Castro, anti-Communist and anti-JFK I would doubt that he would be a single prime mover behind the conspiracy.

I would say that its possible to make a good case that David Morales, John Roselli and David Phillips were involved in the conspiracy and that if anything Phillips role related more to Oswald and framing Castro while Morales drove the attack itself.

What I was probably trying to say to you is that Phillips can be associated with a lot of movers including very wealthy people in Texas but that personally I can't connect the dots to specifically to invdividuals above the three names above - not in a way to satisfy myself at least.

-- Larry

Sorry Dixie, I don't have a scanner. It may be that the DPUK folks will put scans on their WEB site; that would be a great service. I'll drop them a note on the interest. Don't know if any of the posters are are members are not but the DPUK folks do some very good research and have one of the few print research journals still being published.

Mark Rowe is their US correspondance and membership person, he can be emailed at eworkram@aol.com

-- Larry

Steve...

Thanks a bunch, that is the Dial Ryder photo that I had in mind.

Larry....

Thanks also for your info. Do you have a way to attach the Masen photos that you mentioned? I would like to see them.

Dixie

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Steve, Mark Bridger has done a fantastic job of obtaining high school and other contemporary photos of Masen; they are published in the November issue of the Dealey Plaza Echo. with a side by side comparison to Oswald.

Masen is a rther distinctive looking individual and I for one see only limited resemblance to LHO. I don't think I would ever confuse the two and I'm poor with faces; the good news is that with Mark's photos everyone can now make their own judgement.

-- Larry

Heck Tim, even I wouldn't take it as an attack. If Jim had not written Crossfire I might have easily have had a much saner life for the last decade and more; I've written several bios's and introductions giving Jim the credit and blame for getting me started on this path. My work is a microanalysis of certain elements leading to a very specific theory; much less comprehensive than Jim's work and never intended for a broad audiance but rather for researchers (hence the CD and constant document references) as well. Then there is of course the fact that Jim is a professional writer, something I'd never claim to be myself.

Indeed, the inspiraction for my doing a book at all was (rough paraphrase of a presentation open that Jim gave years ago at a conference in Dallas) Jim's remark that we needed to get past just arguing that there was a conspiracy occured and start working with that point as a given - Jim, sorry if that is very rough but that's the way I remember it.

-- Larry

John,

I hope you won't characterize as it as an "attack on Larry Hancock" when I say that your statement that "Someone Would Have Talked is in my opinion the best book written about the assassination of JFK" is nonsensical when the existence of such books as Crossfire is considered.

Tim

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The "secret" Life investigation I mentioned in an earlier post was headed by Holland McCombs out of Texas and the documents relating to it are contained with his huge personal papers collection at the Paul Meek Library at the University of Tennessee Martin, UTM. McCombs was Life Bureau manager in Dallas and apparently very close to Henry Luce of Life. The JFK section contains 399 documents with almost 7,000 pages.

The secret Life investigation extended over 1 year however McCombs apparently pursued the subject for the remainder of his own life.

During the war McCombs had served as Mexico Bureau chief and conduced espionage activities for both Luce and ONI. He was also apparently very well acquainted with Johnson.

The Life study began on October 27, 1966 and apparently used lots of media people including Josia Thompson and Hugh Aynesworth; in 1967 the project was abandoned during the Garrison investigation although it appears that McCombs may have fed information from it to his friend Clay Shaw. Wallace Millham, who located the collection and presented on it at a JFK Lancer Conference stated that it appears that Dick Billings may have shut it down when Garrison actually brought charges specifically against Shaw.

The Life team did reseach on Arcacha Smith, Brennan, Craig and made very detailed notes on the Ruby trial. They also did some unique research on the Hidel alias and found a witness who reported a heavy set man leaving the rear of the TSBD and going towards a railway car; that witness seems never to have surfaced anywhere else. And Wallace felt that some of the notes expressed a real fear that Garrison would go after the Anti-Castro Cubans successfully. He also mentioned that the notes appear to indicate that Life supported Josiah Thompson initially but then turned against him.

All in all John, I think this material has been woefully ignored and could be the grist for a truly insightful study; when combined with the papers we actually have on the Justice Department interference in the Garrison trial it could make a really interesting book and might indeed connect the dots to show Billings full role in the Garrison investigation.

John, I am awere of Billings activities with Garrison - actually I found it informative to read Billings personal log which you can find at:

http://www.jfk-online.com/billings2.html

Billings was not the individual I was referring too; that individual (whose name eludes me at the moment) was a senior Luce staff member in Texas. The documents I referred to were donated by him as part of his professional and personal collection and are at a small university in Tennessee. I understand from remarks by Robert Chapman that much of it will be made available at some' point for online access via the Mary Ferrell foundation.

This Texas Life staffer was a personal friend of Clay Shaw and although his investigation (and Life's) apparently begun before Garrisons'. Wallace's presentation seemed to indicate that some of the material that they had found was personally turned over to Shaw's defence team by his old friend.

I think I should point out that there were many serious conspiracy resarchers - first generation folks - who were personally very supportive of Garrison for some time and who went to New Oreleans to work with him but eventually became disenchanted and decided that his focus on Shaw not only a mistake but was taking

everyone in the wrong direction. In the end they withdrew their support....for all I know Billings may have gone through the same process. Certainly I do think that Garrison "cut the trail of the conspiracy in New Oreleans and threatened to expose the "real" Lee Oswald. Why and how he was taken in the wrong diection by people like Howard, Hemming, Hargraves, De Torres, Santana and others probably also has some real meaning. They certainly worked as hard at "sterring" him as the Justice department did at covertly aiding Shaw's defense team and the CIA did at making sure Garrison could not have legal access to their people. The FBI and CIA actions are not fully documented in records releases for anyone who wants to investigate that example of federal obfuscation.

However I can't simply go along with the speculation that everything we see is evidence of a grand conspiracy.....without somebody connecting the dots. Certainly I think someone should dig in and study Billings materials and what Millam found on the Life investigation - that might help settle it one way or another. As far as I know not a single person has yet to follow up with or publish on the LIFE materials that Wallace first identified several years ago in his Lancer presentation?

-- Larry

John, given the Luce's aggressive conservatism (both husband and wife) I find it very consistent that they would have been doing deep background exploration on any potential democratic candidates. I suspect that they saved the "ammunition" as you speculate - but simply because Kennedy was the primary candidate in 1960 and by 1964 when he was running as a war candidate over Viet Nam they may not have been that opposed to him.

In regard to the Luce's, LIFE and the war against Castro it is certainly true that the Luce's kept up the "get Castro" drumbeat but the more I study this subject the more indications I find that Luce was probably no more an ongoing source of a call to get rid of Castro than was RFK and at times there may even have been more mutual interest than I might have imagined. An example is the TILT mission, where I once viewed it to be an almost rogue operation by JMWAVE personnel I have recently been reviewing correspondance between Pawley and Marshall Carter which clearly gave the go ahead for LIFE's involvement on the chance that the mission might provide proof of Russian and Cuban duplicity and demonstrate missiles still in Cuba. This occurs at the same time that the Kennedy administration was itself moving to a formal position that the agreement with the Russians for non-intervention was null and void since the UN inspections which were part of that agreement had run into a stone wall and were obviously not going to happen.

On another point, due to the research of Wallace Millam, we now know that LIFE magazine reopened and conducted its own investigation of Lee Oswald and a possible conspiracy in the President's assassintion over an extended period circa 1966. Many of the records of that investigation are housed in a university and we still have not had an in depth study of that investigation....

-- Larry

John, I don't know if you have seen William Law's new book "In The Eye of History" but I imagine William would be happy to discuss it - it is certainly the most newest and most current look at the reality of the Bethesda autopsy and contains new information from Siebert and Oneil (that we always wondered if we could ever get!). If anyone is interested in Bethesda or the medical cover-up it is a must read.

-- Larry

Ooops, sorry about that, my reply to Tosh mentioned some details that were not in the papers I posted, but in additional work on this. In any event, the remarks I mentioned were in a lengthy response that the FBI was forced to give the WC when called on the issue of the unidentified prints and that response contains the remarks by the Dallas CSI officers. Additionally, Ian Griggs interviewed one of the fellows who worked in a book publisher in the building who said he entered the building over the weekend, found the door unlocked and nobody around and essentially wondered over the whole building unmolested. Which indeed illustrates that lack of concern over remaining evidence and the possiblity of removal or tampering with the scene.

Tosh, as far as I can recall the only fingerprinting at the crime scene was of the rifle (not the boxes around it), a small number of boxes in the window (not all the boxes which Oswald had supposedly set up as a "nest") and nothing else....including the window which had been raised, the window sill and not even later on of the "Oswald clipboard" - which was found much later in close proximity to where the rifle had been recovered but which was not located on Nov. 22 or that weekend. The clipboard was inferred as a tie to Oswald although its hard to see him running out with a clipboard and a rifle or the coincidence of his impulsively deciding to hide the rifle close to his clipboard.

If anyone has knowledge of more CSI work I'd love to see it; as I pointed out in my paper, thinking of the TSBD as a typical CSI investigation is totally misleading especially given how many people were allowed in and how open the building was left. The CSI guys themselves swore to the FBI it would be impossible to identify the unidentified prints on the boxes because so many people had been in the building with no control over the weekend - which actually makes it sort of fascinating that they did go on to identify all the prints (well all except one and perhaps a couple more) as FBI administrative people who had handled the boxes.

-- Larry

On another note though,  while I also initially thought that the Douglas Caddy sent out to aid the Watergate guys was Estes former lawyer,  my reading of some of the books from Watergate participants I got the impression that the DC Caddy was a young fellow who was picked to respond to the call to the law firm based on his lack of experience and visiblity.  I don't know if anyone has really confirmed that link or not but it may be a coincidence (although that would be a heck of a coincidence).

  -- Larry

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Larry: They are the same Doug Caddy.

And why the print evidence has not gone further is because since Glen Sample obtained Wallace's print from Doug Kinser's murder to do the comparison to the latent, that "channel" has been blocked. As in no one can get access to that print now from Austin DPS. You "need a case to attach it to". I don't think Nathan Darby himself can even get it at this point.

Dawn

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I just received word I should not post this and it would be best for me to just forget it. Perhaps, I would have..., until I was told that:

Very interesting Larry and Dawn. Good research paper Larry. Interesting reading. (at least from my view point) I find it interesting and almost proves beyond doubt what I know to be true. Now its a case of proving the connections and the print is the ace.

However, the fingerprint is not a dead issue. I have a source who might help on this very delicate matter. Some Texans, in the Dallas and Austin areas, have known for years about my family associations with some of these Texas politicians and inside fund raisers. (ref; Texas Ranger Mr. xxxxxxxxxxx ret (certified statement on file)

The details are sensitive had have been for years. Even before the 1940's some of our family friends were on the "inside" of some of this Texas wheeling and dealing. From Lockheed at Dallas Love Field, during the war years of the 40's, to Ling Temco Vaught at Hensley Field, and North American Aviation. There have been bits a pieces handed down to me by accident.., and as I got older on purpose. My family played a small part in this Texas political 'mumb-bo' Jum-bo' of the time. (certified copies of Bio on the Plumlee's/Morgans and the Clint Murxxx 1940-1967 done by independent sources names withheld at present)

The fingerprint and palm print was taken off the box by a friend who was there that day. He was law enforcement, active on another project but was for awhile tied to the FBI's investigation in Dallas. The prints on record are not the only prints available. Dallas has copies only. Better ones are available and will soon be released for study. (Mr.xxxxxd Texas Department of Public Safty, Austin Texas; certified affidavate, 1998.)

Because of the circumstances the chain of evidence for these prints has to be established first. And that is in the works as I write this. Its not over yet. Some out there will get pissed at me for this... but I think its time to prove or dis prove this once and for all. (recordered by a Friend ,a well known Texas Researcher who wants to remain annom.)

It has been said when 'Lady Bird" dies then these prints will come forward from the Dallas P.D and the Austin Texas boys. At that time they can be compared with the FBI and the other Dallas prints. When that is done it will tell who (over the years) has tampered with them and perhaps, why. (documented; name withheld at present as agreed)

I guess what I am saying is a set of prints that have not been given to these law enforcement agencies is available and will be forth coming. Remember we are only dealing with copies, which have been held in their law enforcement bins. I am pushing for this and have been told to "Back Off".

When this release is done, then perhaps the established, or tampered history can be changed and rewritten to reflect the truth of that day.

P.S.Other points to consider:

(1) The prints are not LHO.

(2) The prints are not arranged in an order that would indicate moving or loading or stacking the boxes. (documented by letter)

(3) The crew who had put all the boxes on the fifth floor were fingerprinted. Their prints did not match the prints taken from the boxes at the sniper's nest. (certified afda. by letter)

(4) The results of the fingerprinting of the employees were not released to Dallas PD they were retained by the Dallas FBI and not released to Dallas or Texas authorites. (detailed sworn statement from source)

PS2: One other point. I was told the LHO did not leave any prints at the snipers nest.. At least this is what I was told. But I am not sure of this source.

Does anyone out there know if Oswald left any prints behind... on boxes or window frames or doors, ect? If not I find that strange for a person who worked there. Were there any prints taken that were left anywhere by Oswald? If not why. It was a crime scean... the whole building. Right?

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Jim, Seth Kantor covers that and most other events of the evening and

next day in great detail. I don't recall if he actually gives the fellows names but he did interview some of the press who were there and Ruby was offering to server as a translator, to make introductions and basically to do anything he could to mingle with the press and gain accesss with the press.

I'd highly recommend Kantor's work on this as it totally explodes the WC myth that Ruby acted impulsively on Sunday morning. He clearly had an agenda going from the early evening of the day of the assassination all the way to his shooting of Oswald.

-- Larry

William, do you have any insight into further expert corroboration of the Wallace fingerprint or issues with that?

Also, I was wondering if you obtained any notorized statements from the individuals who have heard the Estes tape or from the fellow (his name escapes me at the moment) who was in the room during one conversation between Cliff Carter and Estes? He had a prior history of carrying money for Carter and Johnson in Texas and was well known to Carter, that much I recall.

Thanks William, very good to see you here! Looks like some definite dis-information from at least one of the Watergate folks writing a youthful Mr. Caddy being selected as a sort of potential human sacrifice to represent the Watergate guys because noboty else in the firm wanted to get involved - certainly not an accurate description for the very veteran Texas lawyer who served in both the Wallace and Estes legal battles. Also interesing to see that he landed in a DC law firm....wonder if that move occured while Johnson was in office?

On another note though, while I also initially thought that the Douglas Caddy sent out to aid the Watergate guys was Estes former lawyer, my reading of some of the books from Watergate participants I got the impression that the DC Caddy was a young fellow who was picked to respond to the call to the law firm based on his lack of experience and visiblity. I don't know if anyone has really confirmed that link or not but it may be a coincidence (although that would be a heck of a coincidence).

As Dawn wrote, they are the same. i did interview Doug back in 1998 and he did confirm it to me.

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John, I would agree with almost all your points except that there is a bit more evidence for some sort of Johnson involvement in the attack in Dallas than just the fingerprint (and by the way, given the nature of a print on cardboard, and the particular print in question it would almost have had to been made within 24 hours of discovery). There is also the entire Loy Factor story which has to be independently evaluated but which does introduce a "Wallace" into the attack totally independently of the Estes/Carter line...

The additional Estes/Carter evidence - if it were to be verified and confirmed - would consist of the meeting between Ciff Carter and Estes which has one living witness (whom Estes offered to Justice but whom was never contacted) and who was videotaped by William Remond confirming both the personal meeting and an audio tape of a call from Carter to Estes.

Their is also a second witness to the content of the audiotape who is on record in Remond's work.

Whether or not William obtained depositions or affidavits to support this is unknown to me but the independent witness to the meeting has been a matter of official record in Estes Justice Department correspondance for over two decades. He can also be proven to be an individual known to be associated with both Carter and Estes and was a money courier to Carter for Johnson "donations" in Texas.

On another note, I think the actual Baker scandal only emerged because of legal action taken by the company which Baker ousted from the contracts, that was a real key to exposing a fairly broad pattern of Johnson's influence peddling by Baker.... which could of course have also eventually reopened up the scab of the Estes scandal and Marshall murder.

John, I don't know about Josefa's death to have an opinion; I do know she seems to have had the makings of becoming a major political liability to LBJ but she also appears to have had lots of problems which could have led to her death.

Estes doesn't really say why she is on the list although the implication is that he heard something from either Wallace or Carter to lead him belive that there was something suspicious about her death.

For myself, I suspect Estes did hear it but it could have been pure gossip; it probably does more to undermine the story than to support it.

-- Larry

John, although I have personal friends who know Billy Sol well, I have made not attempts to contact him myself; basically he is pleasant to them but makes it clear he is not discussing this subject beyond what is in the Remond book so there seems to me little reason I would fare any differently.

I talked to William Remond briefly in Dallas two years ago, saw the preview of the Remond/Estes video shown there last year at the conspiracy museum, traded email with William for several months after that and invited him to present at the Lancer conference this year - unfortunately I have had no communication with him for a good six months now.

I have a French copy and English translation of the article that preceeded the book and have seen a French copy of the book; unfortunately I hear that it is to be released in China and Spain with no near term plans for an English version.

Estes offered a witness to the Justice Department who had been present during Carter's confessions; that witness confirms both the personal remarks and the telephone call that was taped. Another individual also confirms the tape itself and has heard it relatively recently. As far as I know Justice never contacted the witness and no one has other than William Remond. He does appear on the video tape confirming Carter's statemetns. Whether William obtained an affidavit from him to that extent is not clear but certainly he is a key witness to Carter and hence to some level of involvement by LBJ.

Another Death in Texas

The suggestion that LBJ was directly or indirectly involved in the assassination of President Kennedy has been raised in books and discussions for decades; it has even been presented in the (in the play McBird among others). However, the only place where it has been presented in any sort of legal context was to a Texas grand jury investigation in 1984. The grand jury itself had nothing to do with the Kennedy murder nor with Lyndon Johnson; it had been seated to re-examine the death of Henry Marshall. Marshall’s death had originally been declared a suicide in 1961 and that verdict was confirmed by a follow-on grand jury in 1962. Both the original verdict and the first grand jury process left a great many open issues, issues which were widely challenged both within Texas and by the McClellan Congressional sub-committee which was investigating the Billie Sol Estes scandals.

The second grand jury hearing in 1984 received testimony that Lyndon Johnson had been the driving force in Marshall’s murder and that Johnson had also been involved in other murders in Texas, including that of President Kennedy. This hearing and testimony provides us with a concrete starting point for examining the allegation that a Vice President of the united States was involved with the murder of President Kennedy. It also provides an introduction to some of the individuals who were named as co-conspirators with him. The 1984 grand jury concluded that there was sufficient evidence to reclassify Marshall’s death as a murder. It recorded (and sealed) testimony that the motive in the murder related to the threat of Henry Marshall testifying in a federal government investigation of “influence peddling” involving Billy Sol Estes, Cliff Carter and Lyndon Johnson. However, as with the findings of the House Select Committee, no local, State or Federal agency initiated a follow-on action to initiate a criminal or further examine the suspects presented to the 1984 grand jury.

The transcripts and findings of this grand jury were sealed as a matter of routine. However, media coverage of the hearing surfaced many of the basics including the names and identities of the alleged co-conspirators; only in 2003 did researchers manage to find and make public tape recordings of the actual hearings. (1)

West Texas, Robertson County, March, 1984 (2)

For four hours, Billie Sol Estes, just released from his latest time in a federal penitentiary, talked to a Grand Jury convened to reconsider the death of agricultural agent named Henry Marshall.

Marshall had died over two decades before in 1962. The grand jury also took extensive testimony and evidence from U.S. Marshall Clint Peoples who had devoted a good number of years to the investigation of Henry Marshall’s death.

At the time of Marshall’s death in 1961, the local community and law enforcement were not aware that Henry Marshall would have been a major figure in the investigation of a series of agribusiness scandals and would have given key testimony to both State and Federal inquiries. These business scams would later explode in the national press as the “Estes Scandal”. By spring of 1962, Estes was under investigation by both Senate and House Committees, by Texas Federal and State grand juries and the Texas State Attorney General. Estes and eventually several Agricultural Department employees were also under investigation by the Department itself.

On May 7, 1962, over a year after Marshall’s death, Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman would state during a press conference that the reason it was so hard to get to the bottom of Estes’ dealings in cotton allotments was because “the key figure in the case is not alive.” The name of this key figure was Henry H. Marshall. Marshall headed the Texas Agricultural Stabilization Service and was a 25 year department veteran at the time of his death. He had been the first senior state staff person to recognize the Estes scam as well as the one to actively mobilize local department officials to recognize and move against Estes.

During the spring of 1961, Henry Marshall met with Estes’ lawyer John Dennison and with the manager of Billie Sol Estes Enterprises, A.B. Foster Jr. Marshall made his position perfectly clear on both the Estes violations and on his lack of interest in a promotion to Washington. According to his last boss, W. Lewis David, Marshall had been offered a series of promotions to headquarters in Washington which would have removed him from the Estes affair. However, Marshall “refused these offers because he liked to live in Bryan and liked his work at College Station.”

One week following the fruitless approach by Estes’ lawyer to Henry Marshall, the manager of Billie Sol Estes Enterprises, A.B. Foster, wrote a letter to Cliff Carter in Vice President Johnson’s office. The letter concluded with a request for Carter to “investigate this and see if anything can be done.”

Certainly a letter from Estes’ business manager to Cliff Carter was not out of line as Estes and Carter had been corresponding for some time. Earlier, Estes had written Carter recommending a friend for an Agriculture Department job; Carter had replied on December 27, 1960, acknowledging the recommendation and signing himself as “Cliff”. In fact on April 25, 1984, during coverage of the Grand Jury proceedings in which Estes finally testified, the Dallas Morning News reported that Vice President Johnson or his staff had written over 20 letters to Billie Sol Estes in the months and years preceding the scandal. Carter’s letters to Estes end with remarks such as “Please call me when we can be of service” or in the 1960 reply to Estes a postscript – “Am moving my family to Washington this week so call on me in the vice president’s office as we can serve you.” Carter’s correspondence and offers of assistance to Estes were also very understandable given Estes’ high profile within Texas Democratic politics as well as his history of political support and donations to LBJ’s campaigns.

Henry Marshall had mounted a campaign against the Estes cotton scam, traveling over West Texas, explaining the regulations to county committees, exposing a sample Estes’ type contract and instructing office managers to be on the watch for similar applications. However, within two months, on the first weekend in June and after dropping off his ten-year-old son to spend a day with his wife’s brother L. M. Owens, Marshall was found dead beside his pick-up in one of his own pastures. Owens had planned to take the boy along on his DR. Pepper truck to service a local family homecoming.

When Marshall did not return as scheduled to pick the boy up, Owens started searching for Marshall, eventually finding him lying in the grass near the left side of his truck. Marshall had bruises on his face, hands and arms. There was a fresh dent on his truck and blood was splattered on both sides and in the rear of the pick-up. Inside the truck, placed neatly on the seat, were the contents of Marshall’s pockets – his wallet, eyeglasses and case, watch, a pencil, a half-empty box of raisins and an unused single edged razor blade.

Owens returned to town and immediately informed Robertson County Sheriff Howard Stegall. Before going to the scene, Stegall called the local justice of the peace, reportedly telling him that they “had a man out in a field that had killed himself.” Perhaps the Sheriff’s remark explains why no pictures were taken at the scene, no blood samples taken of the stains (before the truck was washed the next morning), no checks were made for fingerprints on the rifle or pick-up nor was the site roped off?

The Sheriff’s opinion also managed to stand in the face of the fact that Marshall would have had to commit suicide by shooting himself “five” times with a bolt action rifle held at arms length, working the bolt action in between each time he fired into his side!

Marshall’s family did not believe the suicide verdict that the justice of the peace had recorded for the Sheriff - nor did the undertaker, who had considerably more experience than the justice of the peace, who actually had none.

West Texas, Robertson County, May 21, 1962

The first grand jury in the Marshall death was convened in the wake of Secretary Freeman’s disclosure that Henry Marshall was the “key figure” in the mushrooming Billie Sol Estes scandal. Marshall’s wife and attorneys had tried for months to contest the suicide verdict but they were continuously told that local authorities “were definitely satisfied that the cause of death was suicide.” Only the pressure from the Estes scandal had forced the convening of a local grand jury, a grand jury that was formed in such haste that one of the members, Ralph McKenney, recalled a deputy sheriff running downstairs in the courthouse and finding them in their office and telling them “Y’all need to be up in the courtroom in three minutes because no one else is available.” The final jury contained three members from the Agriculture Department. It also contained the son-in-law of the Sheriff who had failed to conduct any criminal investigation and immediately labeled the death a suicide.

In conjunction with the grand jury, the body of Henry Marshall was exhumed and an autopsy performed, the preliminary examination given to the jury was that the medical examiner did not believe it was a suicide.

This grand jury seemingly could not have avoided the possibility of a relationship between the Marshall death and the Estes scandal. However, locals such as FBI agent Tommy McWilliams steadfastly refused to consider foul play; McWilliams told reporters there was no sign that “Marshall and Estes even knew each other” and he went on to theorize that Marshall shot himself five times, “didn’t realize he was dead” and then tried to breathe carbon monoxide to kill himself. The medical examiner disagreed, stating that “if in fact this is a suicide, it is the most unusual one I have seen during the examination of approximately 15,000 deceased persons”. He continued on to totally refute all the other elements of the FBI agent’s bizarre suicide theory.

Authors note: Apparently the FBI investigators were indeed “baffled” as described in a Dallas Morning News article of June 20, 1962. The article states that the Federal investigators found it hard to believe that Marshall could have committed suicide by shooting himself five times with a bolt action rifle but as they moved into the case they were unable to find any motivation for murder. At first this statement sounds simply incredible but, if as lead agent McWilliams describes, they refused to acknowledge any possible connection between Marshall and the Estes scandal, it becomes understandable if slightly mind boggling. The FBI’s position is especially difficult to understand in light of the wide spread media discussion of the connections between Marshall’s death and the Estes scandal. (3) (4)

During the grand jury hearings, Billie Sol Estes flew in for two hours of testimony during which he invoked the Fifth Amendment almost continuously. After this and further testimony from FBI agent McWilliams, the grand jury was continuing to take evidence. However, with no apparent warning to the Country Attorney, the Judge informed the jury that the investigation was complete. Dallas Morning News reporter, George Kuempel described the fact that the 1962 grand jury investigation had been “abruptly halted without explanation.” Jurors stated that additional witnesses had been called at the time Judge Barron informed them that the investigation was complete. County Attorney Bryan Russ “threw up his hands as if he could do nothing about it” when Judge Barron told them the hearings were done and they were dismissed.

According to jury member McKinney, the sheriff’s son-in-law had “used every influence he possibly could against the members of the jury to be sure that it came out with a suicide verdict.” In an interview with the Dallas Morning News in 1984, the son-in-law stated that he didn’t “consciously” try to lobby anyone.

Authors note: It may be pure circumstance, but the foreman of this grand jury, Eddie Gaylon Rinehart, was appointed Postmaster for Franklin County not much more than a year following the ruling supporting suicide. The appointment was obtained through Lyndon Johnson, and as with all Texas patronage positions during that period, coordinated by Cliff Carter. The appointment is found in the Postal Records for the Franklin Post Office.

Based on information made available during the second grand jury in 1984, we now know that both the Texas Department of Safety and the Chief Medical Examiner in Houston had filed very strong letters with Judge Barron stating their conclusions for murder rather than suicide. They also presented extensive evidence to support the conclusion of murder. We do not know whether or not Judge Barron actually submitted the Texas Department of Safety report or the letter from the Chief Medical Examiner to the first grand jury nor whether it was a factor in his apparent surprise cessation of the hearings.

Authors note: These investigations and the evidence supporting a conclusion of murder were presented to the 1984 grand jury and will be reviewed shortly; for reference (see Notes 6 and 7)

“….this cotton allotment matter has already caused the death of one person….do you know Henry Marshall?”

The officials out in Robertson County studiously avoided all the evidence that suggested Marshall’s death was anything other than a very conveniently timed suicide with no evident motive. They avoided the issue of the actual crime scene evidence and lack of a criminal investigation at the time of death. They also managed to avoid connecting the death to the Estes scandal with the FBI agent appearing before the jury telling them “as far as I know they never even heard of each other.” Billie Sol himself avoided any comment on the subject by repeatedly using the Fifth Amendment.

However, there was plenty of evidence that the two men knew each other, that Estes and his lawyers knew how significant Henry Marshall would be in any investigation of Estes cotton allotments and that Estes himself had reason to think that Marshall’s death was related to the scandal.

The first indication was in one of those spur of the moment remarks that we have seen before – something said in the heat of the moment, before someone who at the time probably had no idea of the real implications. In this case, it was a remark made during a visit by Estes and his lawyer John Dennison to the Agriculture Department in Washington D.C. Estes had gone there on October 18, 1961, demanding that the department cease its investigation into his cotton allotments (the formal Department investigation had started only a month after Marshall’s death).

Wilson C. Tucker had actually testified before the McClellan sub-committee that Estes “without any preliminary conversation told him that he had not done anything wrong, that the reputations of his friends were at stake and that something had to be done immediately.” Estes appeared highly nervous, threatened to embarrass the Kennedy administration and apparently as an afterthought mentioned to Tucker that the affair “had caused the death of one person”, then asking him if he knew Henry Marshall? This remark was made six months before any public question had been raised about Marshall’s death.

Much later, Senator McClellan asked Tucker whether he regarded the statement as any sort of implied threat, that one man had already lost his life. Tucker replied that he didn’t really think about it. When McClellan suggested that most people would have demanded an explanation or challenged Estes’ motives, Mr. Tucker stated that he “just didn’t know what he (Estes) meant.”

Whatever Estes knew in 1962 he kept to himself and did so for the next 22 years - with one exception. That exception was a conversation with Texas Ranger Clint Peoples. Peoples was a legend in the Rangers, he spent 60 years in Texas law enforcement and worked his way up through the Ranger ranks between 1947 and 1974 retiring as Senior Ranger Captain.

Estes’ remarks to Peoples emerged during the second grand jury hearings in 1984, hearings called because word was passed to a young Robertson County attorney that Billie Sol Estes was going to honor a pledge he had made to Clint Peoples as Peoples transported him to Federal prison. Estes was finally willing to talk about the death of Henry Marshall – which takes us back to where we began, the 1984 grand jury.

West Texas, Robertson County, March, 1984

Mr. Peoples was called to the stand to testify as an expert witness. The following information is taken directly from the abridged 13 pages of his testimony. (5) At the time, Peoples was United States Marshall for the Northern District of Texas.

Authors note: The reader should compare Clint Peoples’ experience and credentials as a U.S. Marshall to that of Cliff Carter – Carter was appointed Marshall for the Southern District of Texas by Lyndon Johnson. Peoples had been in law enforcement for 55 years as of 1984 and held nine different titles ranging from deputy sheriff to Ranger Senior Captain in 1969 before his Presidential appointment to the position as U.S. Marshall.

Cliff Carter was appointed U.S. Marshall for the Southern District in 1949 based upon Johnson’s political recommendation. He was confirmed by the Senate in July 1949 and served for five years until 1954. He had no law enforcement experience prior to his appointment; at the time he was operating a 7-Up bottling plant. However, he had helped Johnson as his 6th District campaign manager in the election that gained Johnson his Senate seat. Carter would be serving as U.S. Marshall in 1951 at the time of another very significant murder trial which we will study in detail later, a trial with one of the most unusual verdicts ever rendered for 1st Degree Murder.

In his grand jury appearance, Peoples noted that he had begun his investigation of the death of Henry Marshall in 1962, assigned because of the pending McClellan Committee investigation of the death as related to the Estes scandals. Initially, he spent two months and took in a team of four Rangers. At that point he “determined that there was something very definitely wrong” about the death being recorded as a suicide.

Peoples testified that in his opinion local law enforcement had misdiagnosed the death, primarily because there had not been any actual investigation of the crime scene nor an autopsy.

The area was not secured nor searched, there was no suspicion of Marshall’s belongings and glasses being neatly laid out on the seat, there were no photographs of the scene or the truck, no fingerprints, no ballistics tests, paraffin test or even collection of shells.

Peoples also stated that the death should be listed as a murder based on the physical evidence. This included the way Marshall was shot in the side and all of the things that happened in and about the pick-up truck including the belongings arranged on the seat, the blood on the truck, dents on the truck, and the plastic bag found by Peoples himself which could have been used in an attempt to suffocate Marshall with carbon dioxide. The bag had been taken some hundred yards into the bushes and stuffed under a bunch of bushes – without doubt, placed there by someone other than Marshall.

Peoples’ assessments and statements were actually supported and presented to Judge Barron at the time of the first 1962 grand jury hearing. In a strongly worded letter to Judge Barron, Homer Garrison, Director of the Texas Department of Safety submitted the results of the investigation led by Ranger Captain Peoples.

The letter describes a serous brain injury and cut over the eye causing it to protrude, severe bruises on the back of the hands, blood on both sides of the pick-up and an absence of blood inside the truck, a dent in the truck from some sort of instrument and the fact that due to the prior injury it would have been impossible for Marshall to have operated the rifle and trigger with his left hand. It reinforces this with a statement that it was completely impossible that Marshall could have shot himself due to a variety of facts.

These included the absence of blood on the ground where the body was found, the subsequent autopsy which found three of the bullet wounds were each incapacitating and the fact that Marshall died quickly form internal hemorrhaging, making it impossible to have fired the shots accurately under the influence of carbon monoxide as well as committing the other acts and return to the spot of his death. (6)

The report from the Texas Department of Safety was also strongly supported by a letter from Dr. Joseph Jachimcyzk to Judge Barron. Doctor Jachimczyk refuted, point by point elements which had been used to support the contention of suicide including the claim that Marshall was in a depressed mental and emotional condition. His conclusion is that the death should be investigated as a “murder case”. (7)

The conclusion seems clear that there is little doubt that Henry Marshall was violently, brutally and sloppily killed by someone who did an extremely poor job of making it look like a suicide. There is also certainly nothing about the murder to indicate that it was the work of a professional killer.

Looking in the Right Direction…

When Clint Peoples had escorted Billie Sol Estes to Federal Prison in 1979, Peoples was still frustrated by the lack of a criminal investigation in what he knew to be the murder of Henry Marshall. During the drive to the prison, Peoples talked to Estes about it and Estes told him that Peoples and the others had been looking in the wrong direction. When asked where he should look, Estes made his second public remark about the Marshall murder.

He told Peoples to concentrate on “the people that had the most to lose.” When asked if that meant looking in the direction of Washington, Estes replied “You are now very definitely on the right track.” At that point, Estes said that supplying any details would have to come in the future but he promised Peoples that he would talk once he was out of Federal prison. (8)

Of course one key question that must be asked is whether Estes is a viable source for direction, especially given that he is without doubt guilty of fraud, deceit and lying in regard to his business affairs and served prison time for such behavior. Another question is whether or not Estes would have a vested interest in diverting attention from himself as a suspect. This is important given that absolutely no one was able to develop any motive for Marshall’s murder (not just murder but murder disguised as suicide) other than as it might relate to the Estes scandal. These two questions need to be addressed independently before evaluating Estes’ actual statements and the suspects he identified when he finally did decide to give testimony to the 1984 grand jury.

As a source, Billie Sol Estes is no better and no worse than any other criminal. Obviously, Clint Peoples was fully aware of that; few crimes get solved without one or more of the parties involved giving information. The use of “informants” is common practice in criminal investigations where the information provided is evaluated and corroborated (or not) independently of its source. Estes’ behavior in providing or offering to provide information is as follows:

1. Estes provided no information at the time of Marshall’s death when any

investigation of murder could easily have turned to Estes as a suspect.

2. Estes provided no information to the first grand jury in 1962 at a time when

Estes had been convicted of no crimes, even fraud, but when an investigation of murder could again have turned to him as a suspect – he “took the Fifth”.

3. Estes did make a slip indicating that he was well aware that the Marshall death

was indeed connected to the Estes scandals; he made it under stress and spontaneously in an effort to stop the Department of Agriculture’s investigation.

4. In his remarks to Clint Peoples before entering Federal prison, Estes made it

clear that it was not a time for him to talk and that if he did he would be at risk from the individuals involved.

5. Estes did go on record after his release but only under a grant of immunity

from prosecution. However, as we will see, he was unable or unwilling to provide the grand jury with documentation supporting his testimony. It should be noted that in his testimony he was also implicating himself as an accessory to murder. Any evidence produced would have been evidence offered against himself and subject to use in any investigation or prosecution outside the scope of the Marshall grand jury hearings.

6. Following his grand jury testimony, Estes (through his lawyer Douglas Caddy) approached the United States Justice Department with an offer to provide information for a criminal investigation.

7. In exchange, he wanted several things from Justice including “pardon for offenses for which he has been convicted and immunity from further prosecution among other things.” Among the items of note in the Justice reply to Estes are the conditions that Justice would make no specific promises to Estes outside that of confidentiality until such time that they had fully evaluated his sources, claims and documents. Justice did assign investigators to work with Estes but at that point, Estes declined to meet with them and any potential Justice Department initiative was aborted.

We have no reason for Estes’ decision; however, it seems unlikely that Justice could have given Estes all that he asked for, especially given that some of the crimes in which he was going to implicate himself as an accessory would have been in a variety of local and state jurisdictions and outside of Federal jurisdiction. (9)

Billy Sol’s information is clearly stated both in his 1984 grand jury remarks and most precisely stated in his letters to the Justice Department:

“Mr. Estes was part of a four member group, headed by Lyndon Johnson, which committed criminal acts in the 1960’s. The other two besides Estes and LBJ, were Cliff Carter and Malcolm Wallace.”

Estes went on to list a series of murders including other individuals associated with the Estes scandals and ending with the murder of President John F. Kennedy. He stated that Johnson had authorized the murders, Cliff Carter had communicated instructions to Malcolm Wallace and that Wallace was personally involved in committing the crimes. At the time of his statement, all parties named were deceased except Estes himself.

Estes stated that his knowledge of these events was obtained from conversations with all three individuals but most specifically from his personal and telephone conversations with Cliff Carter and Malcolm Wallace. In a conversation with Cliff Carter in 1971, Carter actually discussed and listed more murders than those with which Estes was familiar. Estes also states that all of the details he might offer as to the murders would be second hand from either Carter or Wallace.

The only actual detail provided by Estes on any of the murders listed for the Justice Department was given by Estes to the 1984 grand jury and were in regard to the Marshall murder, supposedly as related to Estes by Malcolm Wallace himself. He described Wallace’s plan to kill Marshall and make his death appear as a suicide involving carbon dioxide, Wallace’s struggle with Marshall and his attempt to put a plastic bag over Marshall’s head and use the exhaust from the truck to kill him as well as Wallace panicking at hearing a car in the area which caused him to shoot Marshall and hurriedly leave the scene.

“You can’t do that 23 years later.” D.A. John Paschell, 1984

The 1984 grand jury did conclude that Henry Marshall had been murdered. It found elements of Estes’ information of interest, especially in light of the fact that three additional individuals associated with the Estes scandal - George Krutilek (Estes accountant), Harold Orr and Howard Pratt who were all found dead with indications they had all died of carbon monoxide poisoning. However, as District Attorney Paschell stated, to solve the Marshall crime, a fully fledged criminal investigation would be required, something he just didn’t feel could be done after 23 years, especially with all the named suspects deceased. On top of that, Estes had offered no documentary proof other than his personal testimony and that by itself was insufficient to go any further with the Marshall murder.

Authors note: The Senate Investigating Committee, under Senator McClellan, proposed an inquiry into the death of George Krutilek. Krutilek was an accountant for several large landholders and farmers in the Pecos, Texas area who had dealings with Billie Sol Estes. His body was found on April 4 in a car near Clint, Texas. Pathologist Fred Bornstein ruled the death as heart failure but stated that the body was so badly decomposed that a definitive autopsy was impossible. (10)

Despite a negative report on carbon dioxide poisoning, Krutilek’s body was found in his car seated under the steering wheel and with a hose running from his car exhaust and stuck into the vehicle’s window. In May, 1962, Howard Pratt, the Chicago office manager for Commercial solvents was found dead and police said he had killed himself. Pratt’s body was found in his car and had died from carbon monoxide poisoning. He and his firm had been under scrutiny in the Estes scandal. (11)

Harold Orr, an associate of Billie Sol Estes was found dead in his carbon monoxide filled Amarillo garage two days before he was scheduled to report to prison. Orr had been convicted of conspiracy and fraud as part of the Estes fertilizer tank scandal. (12)

At a minimum, four men died in association with the Estes scandal within a twelve month period: Marshall, Krutilek, Pratt and Orr. Of these the Marshall and Krutilek deaths both tied directly to the cotton allotment scandals and are the most suspicious. (13)

However, a fifth name might be added to his list. Most of Estes’ grain storage facilities were built through contract with Coleman Wade of Altus, Oklahoma. In early 1963 following a business trip to Pecos in his own plane, Wade crashed in the Kermit area. His unexplained plane crash and death apparently had a major effect in closing off remarks from Estes’ normally talkative personal pilot Douglas Lewsader. Interestingly enough when Lewsader was called to testify on who Estes had paid to fly where and what he might have heard relative to the scandal, Lewsader had begun to talk openly about interesting Estes contacts including those with Teamster Union employees.

However, Lewsader’s new attorney cut that sort of thing off quickly. Lewsader was represented in his court appearances by the very successful and very expensive, John Cofer. (14) Cofer was a long time lawyer for Lyndon Johnson and we will see his name unusual defense tactics emerge again in the Malcolm Wallace murder trial.

Comments from long-time Johnson associates on Estes allegations were relative predictable. Orville Freeman described Estes as a “congenital xxxx” (Freeman had dismissed several employees of his own department for taking bribes and improper conduct as related to Estes). Johnson aide Walter Jenkins describe the accusation as “so far fetched it’s sick” (Jenkins had been fired from the Johnson administration after a scandal over his homosexual activities which Johnson had tried mightily to cover-up using his Presidential clout) and Lady Bird Johnson stated she simply does not respond to “scurrilous attacks”.

What we can do 40 years later….?

As John Paschell said in 1984, doing a true criminal investigation at this distance in time is improbable if not impossible and using Billie Sol Estes as the sole witness to officially support calling for such an investigation would have been unrealistic. However, treating Estes as a source, a criminal informant, a “direction giver” is a different story entirely. Clint Peoples with his decades of law enforcement experience and personal association with Estes and the Marshall case was clearly willing to do that and he was willing to investigate Malcolm Wallace, Cliff Carter and potentially Lyndon Johnson for their involvement in the Marshall murder.

With the sources available to us after 40 years and the work of a number of very good researchers we can do the same. We can investigate Malcolm Wallace to see if his background and activities make him a candidate for the murder of Henry Marshall and we can go further than that. We can also determine if there is anything that might make him a “person of interest” in the murder of President Kennedy.

We can evaluate Cliff Carter to see if he served Lyndon Johnson in the sorts of activities Estes describes. We can also determine if there is any evidence that Carter himself had “guilty knowledge” of the Kennedy assassination, knowledge which might explain or confirm his reported communications to Estes and we can further examine Lyndon Johnson and his personal activities and associates to see if they support any elements of the claim for his being involved with conspiracy related to the assassination of President Kennedy.

Summary

West Texas agricultural agent Henry Marshall was brutally murdered in the spring of 1961. In the preceding months he had been personally and actively involved in investigating, documenting and combating a series of cotton allocation frauds within his jurisdiction.

He had examined documents, interviewed farmers and agricultural personnel. A year later, Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman would name him as the key man who would have been necessary for the Department to investigate and document the Estes cotton allotment fraud.

However, by that time Marshall was a year dead and the cotton scandal was never fully resolved even though several Department personnel were dismissed for taking money and other improper activities. In confirmation of Marshall’s key role in the allotment investigation it should be noted that no charges nor conviction were ever filed on Estes over the allotments; he went to jail for conspiracy and fraud related to fertilizer tank leases. (15)

Marshall’s death was immediately listed as a suicide with no criminal investigation or autopsy, including no investigation of the crime scene or numerous indications of foul play. When Marshall’s key role in the Estes scandal surfaced a year later, a local grand jury was very hastily assembled and validated the suicide verdict.

The jury process was challenged with accusations of internal agendas and an early dismissal; the jury was either not presented with or failed to respond to official findings of murder from the Chief Medical Examiner and the Texas Department of Safety. In addition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation totally failed to investigate or report to the grand jury any connection between Marshall and the Estes scandals.

In 1984, another grand jury was convened to consider new evidence to be offered by Billie Sol Estes himself. Estes testified at length before the grand jury, offering an explanation for Marshall’s death, details on the a murder itself and the names of three other individuals who had been involved in the Marshall murder, other murders in Texas and elsewhere and in the assassination of President John Kennedy. (16)

The 1984 grand jury officially overturned the listing of suicide in Henry Marshall’s death and replaced it with one of murder. However, the Country Attorney was unwilling to proceed with follow-on criminal action due to having only Billie Sol Estes as an uncorroborated witness, the fact that all the listed suspects were deceased and the difficulty of being able to conduct a true criminal investigation 23 years after the murder.

Our challenge is to determine whether Estes’ direction serves any value from a research perspective. It may just be that even after forty years there is something more to add to the story that begins with the death of Henry Marshall.

Notes

1. William Reymond, JFK, The Last Witness, Flammarion 2003

2. Unless otherwise noted, the information about both the initial suicide finding as well the first and second grand jury hearings is taken from “The Killing of Henry

Marshall”, an article by Bill Adler, funded in part by a grant from the Texas

Investigator’s Fund. The Texas Observer, November 7, 1986.

3. “U.S. Agents Baffled Over Marshall Case”, The Dallas Morning News, June 20, 1962.

4. Marshall Grand Jury Recesses Amid Rumors, Rift, Dallas Morning News, June 7, 1962

5. Peoples – by Mr. Banks, Donald Marshall vs. The State Department of Health and Through the Bureau of Vital Statistics, Case No. 377.991, 52nd Judicial District, Travis Country, Texas, Abridged Testimony of Henry Marshall.

6. Letter to Judge John Barron from Col Homer Garrison, Texas Department of Public Safety, July 18, 1962.

7. Letter to Judge John Barron from Dr. Joseph A. Jachimcyzk, Chief Medical Examiner, August 14, 1962

8. “Taking care of business”, Dallas Times Herald, March 23, 1984.

9. The letters exchanged between Estes and Justice as well as remarks from his lawyer can be found in The Men on the Sixth Floor, Glen Sample, edition 3, 2001, pages 159-177.

10. “Deaths of 2 Texans Who Dealt With Estes Probed”, Fort Lauderdale News, May, 9 1962 Exhibit 21-1

11. “Estes Link is Denied In Suicide”, Chicago dateline, Fort Lauderdale News, May 23, 1962 Exhibit 21-2

12. “Probe Ordered in Death of Estes Crony”, Chicago Sun-Times, March 1, 1964.

13. “1962 Death of Estes Accountant to be Probed”, Dallas Morning News, March 29, 1984. Exibit 21-3

14. A Texan Looks At Lyndon, pp. 125-141, J. Evetts Haley, Palo Duro Press, 1964

15. Judge Sentences Estes to 15 Years, The Tyler Morning Telegraph, April 15, 1963.

16. Estes claims LBJ had slush fund, sources say. Dallas Morning News, March 14,

1984 Exhibit 21-4

Part 2: Senate or Penitentiary

It is true that Estes’ remarks to the 1984 Marshall grand jury gave the direction and incentive to examine Lyndon Johnson as an accessory to the murder of President Kennedy. In fact, Estes not only gaves us a direction to Johnson, but specifically to two other individuals involved in both the Marshall and Kennedy murders, one of them being directly involved in the crimes. It is also true that Estes’ statements can be labeled as “scurrilous” and fantastic charges coming from a man previously convicted for fraud.

Countering that interpretation is the fact that for over 30 years, Estes was exceedingly careful to share his information in a very controlled manner. He was also especially concerned about grants of immunity and when he was not given the assurances of immunity from prosecution as an accessory he stopped “officially” talking. In addition, Estes did not just give us a theory, he gave us names of individuals other than Lyndon Johnson, including the name of Malcolm Wallace, the man identified by Estes as directly involved in both the murders of Marshall and President Kennedy.

However, because no official body ever investigated Estes’ claims or the names he provided, it is left to us to evaluate Estes as a source, to attempt to corroborate at least the basic elements of his assertions and to see if we can find any consistency between them and other elements of the conspiracy and cover-up.

To begin, we have Estes’ behavior as an informant, his remarks about the scandal in which he was personally the key figure and his purported relationship with Cliff Carter and Lyndon Johnson in that scandal. If it can be demonstrated, after forty years that Carter and Johnson were involved and that the scandal was a major risk to Johnson’s political career, then we can examine how Johnson might have reacted in comparable circumstances as some measure of Estes’ validity. We can also examine the relationship between Cliff Carter and Lyndon Johnson and investigate Carter’s activities to see if they support Estes’ remarks. As Estes describes him, Cliff Carter was both his source of information and an accessory in both the Marshall and Kennedy murders (and others which are as impossible for us to examine now as they were for the District Attorney in the 1984 grand jury).

However, because of the Kennedy assassination and the Johnson Presidency, it may be that we also have some information with which we can evaluate Carter as to his possible “guilty knowledge” in regard to the murder of President Kennedy. And because of yet another Texas murder and it’s investigation, we will also be able to examine Malcolm Wallace, the other name first brought fourth by Billie Sol Estes. All of which takes us back again to our starting point on the Johnson accusations, West Texas, the Estes scandal and Estes’ very first remark on the death of Henry Marshall.

Washington D.C., October, 1961

Estes’ first visible remarks on the subject were apparently made during a visit to Washington D.C. in which he took up the subject of the Agriculture Department’s investigation of his cotton allotments. Up to that point had not been a public issue or the subject of serious dialog outside of Henry Marshall’s opposition to Estes’ practices in Texas.

Marshall had been found dead in June of 1961. During Estes’ visit to the Agriculture Department he threatened that if his allotments continued to be challenged and investigated he would publicly embarrass the administration. He also mentioned to Mr. Tucker, with whom he met, that one person associated with the investigation had already died. This would appear to indicate that even in the beginning, Estes was associating Marshall’s death with his problems. (1)

Estes made no further public remarks on the subject for several months, until March of 1962 when he was arrested for fraud. For most of that interim period it appeared that the investigation had become a non-issue and Estes remained an active participant in political events in both Washington and Texas. He also continued his personal correspondence with Vice President Johnson as before. In fact, if a rival newspaper in Pecos (Estes owned one of the two town papers) had not begun its own investigation and press crusade centered on various Estes activities, it is extremely likely that there never would have been an “Estes/Johnson Scandal”.

Pecos, Texas, March 31, 1962

Estes’ next significant statement came when he was called to testify at initial hearings in April, 1962. At that time he told the court that his various partners including the finance companies associated with his fertilizer tank activities “knew the tanks didn’t exist….we were buying their credit.” Of course the named finance companies and other business participants strenuously objected to this allegation. However, in the end, a number of Agriculture field inspectors, several senior Agriculture Department officers and the Assistant Secretary of Labor had been fired or forced out of office. And along with Billie Sol Estes, Ruel Alexander, Henry Orr, Coleman McSpadden (all of Superior Manufacturing Company, the company which made the fertilizer tanks) would receive prison terms. Orr, then vice-president of Superior, had assigned the tank mortgages to Pacific Finance. (2) (3)

Considerable press attention was also directed to Commercial Solvents Inc. the Chicago firm which supplied Estes’ fertilizer. Commercial Solvents had assigned him the huge line of credit which had effectively allowed him to keep his prices so low that he could simply take all he West Texas fertilizer business from his established competitors. Even though a senior Commercial Solvents officer, Harold Orr, was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in May of 1962, the company itself was never forced to reveal details of its activities nor its investors. In fact, Commercial Solvents apparently ended up supplying Estes with funds after he was in jail and in the end obtained control of his fertilizer business against outstanding Estes debts. (4)

Although the popular press and in particular the Texas press gave considerable attention to the possible involvement of Vice President Johnson in the Estes scandal, Billie Sol Estes himself did not support that view when the scandal broke in 1962. Indeed he seems to have gone to great lengths to avoid implicating Johnson at the time, even when threatening the Agriculture Department or the Kennedy Administration as a whole. The press spent its time discussing Estes, his business associates, Secretary Freeman and the Agriculture Department, Senator Yarborough, Lyndon Johnson, President Kennedy and a host of related subjects including Texas politics as related to Estes. Because of the number of names in play, it is a bit difficult to mentally grasp the scandal and its real implications, particularly the implications as they might relate to Johnson’s actual involvement and concern.

Perhaps it was that sort of confusion that led to remarks such as the FBI statement during the first Marshall grand jury hearing that there was no sign that Marshall even knew Billie Sol Estes? Or the following 1964 remark which followed the conclusion of the Congressional investigation into the Estes scandal (at that point under the Johnson administration):

James Naughton, subcommittee counsel, said that to his knowledge there is no mention of then Vice President Johnson in the 439 page report. Naughton said that Estes sent gifts of nominal value to an awful lot of people… there is no evidence that Mr. Johnson ever knew Estes.”

Dallas Morning News, October 12, 1964.

Given this sort of apparent confusion, it seems necessary to go through a timeline of significant events pertaining to Billie Sol Estes and West Texas agriculture, especially as it involved his political connections and associations. The ones he didn’t talk about in 1962.

Estes Timeline (5)

1954: Estes loaned his personal plane to Ralph Yarborough for the 1954 gubernatorial campaign and was helping finance his Senatorial campaign broadcasts. Estes even received a certificate as “State Transportation Manager” for Yarborough. (San Angelo Standard, May 20, 1962)

May 18, 1958: “Billie Sol for Governor” Bid Recalled by Texas Senator. Yarborough revealed that in 1957, he was asked to join a move to draft Estes for the gubernatorial nomination. Yarborough also said that he did not feel he was being used when he accompanied Estes to the Department of Agriculture to discuss Estes’ cotton allotment problems. (Fort Worth Star Telegram, May 18, 1958)

November 6, 1960: Estes reportedly gave $50,000 to Senator Yarborough while the Senator states it was only $900. Witnesses support Estes’ account of the amount although at least one received a death threat in the process. (The Dallas Morning News, June 7, 1964)

January 12, 1961: Vice President Johnson wrote a letter to Estes thanking him for holiday roses, “it’s wonderful to have friends like you,” signed, Lyndon. (6)

January 18, 1961: Estes was in Washington D.C. for the Kennedy/Johnson inauguration. He visited with Johnson. The Department of Agriculture, which had been preparing to raise Estes’ bond requirements, reversed its policy, freezing amount at 1960 levels.

….when Texans called Johnson’s office to arrange for trips to the inaugural, they would get calls within a matter of minutes from Billie Sol Estes inviting them to fly to Washington in his private plane. “How Estes Succeeded”, Drew Person, column, May, 19, 1962. 16 Exhibit 22-3

Authors note: In a following chapter we will see that Cliff Carter was working out of the Vice President’s offices at the time, coordinating all inaugural events as relating to Texas and Texas “patronage”.

January 25, 1961: Henry Marshall, at a meeting of Southwest farm aid officials, ruled that Estes’ existing transfers of farm allotments were permissible. “Despite his suspicions, Marshall decided to pass along the approved transfer forms.”

January 31, 1961: Johnson wrote to Agriculture Secretary Freeman on behalf of Estes in regard to allotment procedures and process. He enclosed a letter from A.B. Foster, an Estes employee in Pecos.

February, 1961: during attendance at a business conference in D.C., Ward Jackson, a high official with Commercial Solvents, was provided with special services by Cliff Carter and also visited privately with Johnson. Jackson was personally involved with Commercial Solvents business activities with Billy Sol Estes.

February 20, 1961: Freeman replied to Johnson’s letter, pointing out that there had been some changes in regulations governing allotment transfers due to past abuses. The new procedure required that the applicant personally appear before the county committee with all pertinent documents and prepared to answer all pertinent questions. However, Freeman assured Johnson that the state committee could waive this step if the appearance “unduly inconvenienced” the applicant or because of “illness or good cause.” Freeman assured Johnson that he “felt sure the committee would be reasonable in passing judgement” should the applicant fail to appear.

Freeman’s note was signed and sealed from the Secretary of Agriculture. Johnson mailed Freeman’s reply to Estes accompanied by a note to Billie Sol. The note reads “I hope the information contained in the attached will be of interest and helpful to you” and ended “If I can assist you, let me know.” The note was on a Senate memorandum slip and of course was sent from the Vice President’s office.

May 27, 1961: Estes hosts a $1,000/person tables at President Kennedy’s birthday dinner in Washington D.C.

June 3, 1961: Henry Marshall is found dead by his pick-up.

June, 1961: Estes was appointed by Agriculture Secretary Freeman to a seat on the National Cotton Advisory Council. “Estes Fraud Probe May Lead to High Places”, Miami Herald, May 2, 1962. 15 Exhibit 22-2

August 16, 1961: A letter to Estes from Johnson thanked him for grapefruit and thoughtfulness. Signed, Lyndon Johnson.

Oct 18, 1961: Estes and his attorney visited Mr. Tucker at the Agriculture Department to protest investigation of Estes' allotments. Estes threatened that if the investigation continues, he would publicly embarrass the Administration. During this visit he noted one person has already died in the affair.

October 27, 1961: The Agriculture Department generated a 140 page internal report on the Estes investigation including his threat to go to top Administration officials.

November 17, 1961: Estes attended Sam Rayburn’s funeral and circulated within the enclosure set up for the Rayburn family and the top official guests including Presidents Kennedy, Truman, Eisenhower and V.P. Johnson. “How Estes Succeeded; Money Talks in the U.S.”, Drew Pearson Column, Miami Herald, May 19, 1962. 16 Exhibit 22-3

December 4, 1961: Estes was promoted from informal advisory group to National Cotton Advisory Committee. The Undersecretary of Agriculture and some other top officials knew about the alleged bitter threats against the Administration when they agreed in December to Estes’ promotion to the official government advisory position. “Probers Eye Purported Estes Threat”, Miami Herald, August 2, 1962. 17 Exhibit 22-4

January 1, 1962: Estes paid for a dinner given by the Secretary of Labor in honor of Vice President Johnson. Estes met with Johnson and received an invitation to Johnson’s home for a reception. Estes had been offered the opportunity to pay for the dinner by Jerry Holleman, Asst. Sec. of Labor. The Secretary of Labor would later deny this stating he paid for the dinner. However, Holleman was eventually forced to resign, admitting taking a $1,000 gift from Estes.

January 14, 1962: Estes and other Texans visited Johnson’s home; Estes held a brief, private conversation with the Vice President.

January 16, 1962: Estes’ records show that he was in D.C. from Jan 16 – 20 and that he took three separate cashiers checks totaling $145, 015. The checks were drawn on Estes’ account on January 16 and were taken by him to Washington.

Authors note: Drew Person reported Estes’ actual withdrawals in cash for the D.C. trip as $40,000. “How Estes Succeeded”, Drew Pearson column, March 19, 1962.

January 18, 1962: The Department of Agriculture wired an order to Estes increasing his bond by $700,000 to $1,000,000.

January 23, 1962: Letter to Estes from Johnson “it was good to get a chance to see you this weekend and I’m so glad you could take the time to come out for a visit with Lady Bird and me.” Signed, Lyndon

Authors note: Apparently this sort of thing escaped the attention of the Congressional Committee investigating the Estes scandal - or at least that of its spokesman earlier quoted as stating there were no indications at all that Lyndon Johnson even knew Billy Sol Estes.

January 25, 1962: Estes flew to Washington meeting with Undersecretary Murphy.

Following this meeting, Estes’ recent bond increase was waived.

January 29, 1962: Estes hosted two $100/seat tables directly below V.P. Johnson’s dais at the Kennedy administration’s first inaugural dinner. Senator Yarborough was a senior guest at each of Estes’ tables. Dallas New, April 1, 1962; A Texan Looks at Lyndon, J. Evetts Haley, p. 120.

February 12, 1962: A Pecos newspaper began a series of expose articles on Estes which depicted his fraudulent business practices and eventually destroyed his business.

March 29, 1962: Estes placed a call to Cliff Carter in Washington D.C. the day before Estes’s arrest for fraud.

March, 1962: Estes, Harold Orr, Ruel Alexander and Coleman McSpadden are arrested and charged with conspiracy for tank mortgages. (Pecos Daily News, March 31, 1962)

April, 1962: Agricultural Department Washington office employee N. Battle Hales was downgraded and reassigned after accusing the Department of favoring Estes; his former secretary was forced into the D.C. General Hospital as a mental case by a Doctor from the Department’s medical unit.

Only after the intervention of Senator John Williams was Mary Jones finally released – after the Senator had verified with her own Doctor that Miss Jones was perfectly normal. A Texan Looks at Lyndon, J Evetts Haley, pp. 129-131, Palo Duro Press, 1964

May 11, 1962: Assistant Secretary of Labor Holleman resigned, admitting he had

taken a $1,000 gift from Estes.

May, 1962: In conjunction with a trip to Texas for the funeral of Major Tom Miller of Austin, Lyndon Johnson’s plane skidded during a landing in Dallas and Johnson had to return to Washington by commercial airline. However, there are reports that Johnson had taken a side trip to Midland where his plane was parked away from the terminal while Johnson received visitors who were later identified as Billie Sol Estes and one of his lawyers.

Follow-on inquiries with Midland tower elicited the reply that flight records of the date in question were sealed by government order. A Texan Looks At Lyndon, J. Evetts Haley, Palo Duro Press, 1964.

June, 1962: Telephone company records revealed three calls from Estes to Cliff

Carter in Washington D.C.

Authors note: this article also relates that the telephone records revealed that there had been and two calls from Mr. Estes’ telephone in Pecos to Henry Marshall.

June 25, 1963: Estes appeared in Texas District Court and demanded immediate trial on charges relating to his fertilizer tank deals. Estes was represented by John

Cofer, well known for his association with Vice President Johnson. This move blocks Estes from testifying before any Congressional Committees and Cofer will prevent Estes from offering testimony in Texas.

July 7, 1962: Two Federal farm officials in Oklahoma admitted to a Senate

Subcommittee they had each accepted about $820 in cash from Estes.

July 27, 1962: Coleman McSpadden told a court that Estes had told him he was going to build a 10,000 bushel grain elevator and give an eighth interest to Johnson. Estes also told him he spent $100,000 a year on the “situation” in Washington.

September, 1962: Estes determined he would be best served by telling the full truth in court but was opposed by his lawyer Cofer. Estes attempted to fire Cofer and replace him but Cofer stated he had been paid and refused to leave the case or to allow Estes to testify in court.

September, 1962: Long time Johnson associate Morris Jaffe purchases Estes’ bankruptcy estate for $7 million.

November 3, 1962: John Cofer rested the defense case in the Estes trial without putting a single witness on the stand; his summation was 22 minutes in length. Estes was convicted on November 7 and Cofer did not ask the jury for a suspended sentence.

Note: Commercial Solvents Corp was assigned all Estes grain-storage payments to pay off the $5.7 million owed the form for fertilizer and other debts.

October 12, 1964: A long awaited report on the Estes case stated that there is no evidence that Estes got preferential treatment because of bribery or political influence. The report concluded weeks of public hearings in 1962. James Naughton, subcommittee counsel, said that to his knowledge there is no mention of then Vice President Johnson in the 439 page report.

Naughton said that Estes sent gifts of nominal value to an awful lot of people… there is no evidence that Mr. Johnson ever knew Estes.” (Dallas Morning News, October 12, 1964)

Given the full picture of Estes’ dealings it seems realistic to conclude that Estes’ basic claims do have an element of truth to them. First, a good number of individuals both in his associated companies and within the Agriculture Department had good reason to know that Estes’ business dealings were suspect. Several either lost their jobs or went to jail as a result. In some cases, Estes gained the sufferance of individuals with his touted political connections, in other cases with different types of gifts (including gifts of cash).

In many instances, he simply used the standard quid pro quo of politics, offering campaign contributions, event payments, and the loan of services including his airplane – nothing as graceless as “bribes”. He may indeed have used bribes but given the fact that he was investigated by a Democratic administration (indeed in the end by Johnson’s own administration) and that the records of the Congressional hearings are sealed, it is difficult to say. However, his cash withdrawals prior to his key D.C. visits certainly are suggestive.

Based on Robert Caro’s excellent research biographies of Lyndon Johnson we know that this was not the first time that a Democratic administration managed to dodge a major political debacle over Johnson’s practice of Texas politics. As of 1940, Lyndon Johnson had proven that he could win major Texas elections if he could significantly outspend his opponents and he had found the keys to that level of spending. The first key was Brown and Root. In 1937, Brown had declined to contribute to the Johnson campaign. Johnson dedicated himself to showing Brown that he was a good investment, essentially going to work for Brown in ordering to ensure Brown and Root maximum profit on their huge Marshall Ford Dam project.

As Caro describes it, “He worked for Brown and Root as closely as if he were one of the firm’s employees, an employee anxious to impress his boss with his diligence.” In a note to Herman Brown, Johnson wrote, “It is needless for me to tell you we are humping ourselves on the jobs….this note…is being knocked off between conferences.” (7)

For Brown and Root, the dam project was so profitable that in 1938, Brown “gave Johnson his full weight” including instructions for donations to the Johnson campaign from his sub-contractors, lawyers, insurance brokers, bankers and local politicians. (8)

By 1941, Johnson had become even more valuable to Brown and Root, assisting them in gaining a Navy contract for shipbuilding (when Brown and Root had never built a ship before) which during the course of WWII brought them $375 million in work.

However, by this point through Federal contracts, Johnson had made Brown rich. Brown had gone to the edge of the law and as some IRS agents were later to contend, over the edge into the realm of fraud in order to finance LBJ’s ambition. (9)

The details of the Brown and Root/IRS/Johnson scandal are too lengthy to address here and may be found in Caro’s book, The Path To Power.

However, what is directly relevant is the fact that long before 1961, Lyndon Johnson can be shown to have participated in a pattern of trading influence for contributions and political support. He can also be shown to be a master of taking contributions and cash in a manner that is virtually impossible to trace directly to him and one which is more likely to bring legal action against the donor than Johnson himself. In the Brown and Root incident, Brown’s actions were so blatant and on such a scale that the IRS instituted a major investigation into his use of “cut outs” for the donations as both a tax issue and a violation of campaign donation limits. Brown at first assumed Johnson’s “White House connections” would deflect the investigation and indeed Johnson’s first defense (as it would be in the Estes scandal) was to point the blame at Texas political interests trying to injure the administration. (10)

Authors note: A point worth mentioning is that in 1942, when Johnson, his lawyer and Brown’s representative worked on their defense strategy in Washington D.C., they talked outside the Brown townhouse for fear that the IRS would have it bugged. This fear of being monitored comes up again in the Estes scandal and Estes’ remarks about Johnson’s involvement in the Marshall murder.

The initial Johnson ploy did not work, primarily due to the scope of Brown’s contributions, his tax underpayments were estimated at over $1 million by the IRS agents assigned to the investigation. In the end, Johnson was forced to personally go directly to President Roosevelt and plead for his intervention. Although we have no details on that conversation, Caro relates that the Johnson–Roosevelt meeting occurred on January 13.

On January 14, a single independent IRS investigator was dispatched from the Atlanta office to Texas. This investigator had no background in the work of the team already in Texas, however, after only three days in the field he submitted a recommendation against prosecution and by February 15 the investigation was closed by the IRS.

The IRS field team strongly opposed this decision as asked to be permitted to at least continue collecting data. Its supervisor was ordered to drop the subject with no further discussion. (11)

Authors note: The IRS actually opened another investigation into the same types of campaign contributions in 1950. The investigation had to be abandoned when it was discovered that the evidence had been “accidentally” taken from a fireproof storage warehouse and put into a shanty which then burned completely to the ground. (12) (13)

The major difference in the Brown scandal and the Estes scandal was not one of scale (both involved millions of dollars in penalties). Nor was it one of severity (Federal charges of fraud applied in both although Brown was allowed to settle privately with $372,000 in penalty tax payments, no trial, no fraud indictment and no publicity). It wasn’t even different in regard to political privilege; in both cases Federal investigations were either aborted or neutered.

The difference was one of media coverage and publicity. In 1962, the action of a small local paper elevated the Estes scandal to the level of a national media event, exposing the Kennedy administration in a manner not seen in Johnson’s previous exposure (although before Roosevelt’s intervention Johnson knew that incident “could also end a politician’s career”).

There is perhaps one other significant difference. By 1961, Lyndon Johnson was beginning to allow his influence to be used by individuals who were far more public and “promotional” than Herman Brown - individuals such as Billie Sol Estes and Bobby Baker. For that reason alone, Johnson’s long time practices were dramatically increasing his personal exposure. After his Congressional election scandal in 1948, Johnson’s grandmother had remarked that if the people of Texas had done their jobs “Lyndon Johnson” would be in the penitentiary instead of the United States Senate. (14)

By 1962, Lyndon was moving closer to the brink of legal exposure and as seen in chapter 16, by 1963 he his exposure had reached the critical risk level.

Summary

The first test for the Estes “direction” was to evaluate Estes as a source and then to test the basic elements of his statements. At this point, it seems reasonable to conclude that Estes’ actions, public statements and grand jury disclosures follow a credible pattern.

• Estes first allotment applications were accepted by Marshall even though Marshall held private suspicions over their legality.

• When he first encountered problems with his allotments, Estes went directly

to President Johnson who queried Secretary Freeman and seemingly obtained

an “out” for Estes in regard to Department process.

• Estes’ primary backer, Commercial Solvents, received personal services in Washington D.C. from Cliff Carter and a senior company official met with both Carter and Johnson.

• Estes’ initial response to Agriculture Department opposition was to threaten the Kennedy Administration with bad publicity if the Agriculture Department did not cease its investigation. Estes also introduced the matter of Henry Marshall’s death in the same dialog.

• The Agriculture Department significantly increased Estes bond but after his

his visits to Washington the bond increase was waived.

• There was no “Estes Scandal” until a local Texas newspaper conducted its own inquiry and makes Estes a matter of state and national media coverage.

• Estes made no initial accusations or statements involving Vice President Johnson and focused any issues of wrong doing on the Department of Agriculture and employees of his business partners.

• Numerous Agriculture Department employees lost their jobs or resign; other

individuals with Superior Manufacturing went to jail or died in apparent suicides.

• Only in 1984, after the deaths of those individuals he named as accessories in

the Marshall murder, did Estes go public with his remarks about Marshall’s death. He refused to discuss deaths which occurred outside of Texas.

• After failing to reach terms with the Justice Department over immunity and

other issues, Estes went silent over another decade.

In addition to the actual involvement of both Johnson and Carter as indicated by the items in the timeline introduced here, the work of Johnson’s biographer Caro gives us an illustration of a virtually identical situation occurring two decades earlier – a scandal with all the basic elements of the Estes affair, which only failed to become a public scandal due to President Roosevelt. It seems very credible that both Johnson and Carter were involved with “helping” Billie Sol Estes in the manner he described, essentially giving political leverage and assistance as a quid pro quo for a very prominent and involved Texas contributor.

Notes

1. Act of Treason, Mark North, 1991.

2. The Pecos Daily News, March 31, 1962

3. The Dallas Morning News, April 12, 1962.

4. A Texan Looks At Lyndon, Chapter VI, J. Evetts Haley, 1964.

5. Unless otherwise noted all references are from Act of Treason, Mark North, Caroll

and Graf, 1991.

6. Letters from Johnson to Estes are provided as exhibits. Exhibit 22-1

7. The Path To Power, Robert A. Caro, p.474, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1982.

8. ibid, p. 474.

9. Means of Ascent, Robert A. Caro, p. 16, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1990.

10. The Path To Power, Robert A Caro, p. 743, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1982.

11. Ibid, pp. 741-753.

12. The Texas Connection, p. 112, Craig Zirbel, 1991.

13. A Texan Looks At Lyndon, J. Evetts Haley, pp. 90-92, 1964

14. The Texas Connection, p. 111, Craig Zirbel, 1991.

15. Exhibit 22-2; Estes Fraud May Lead To High Places

16. Exhibit 22-3 How Estes Succeeded; Money Talks In the US

17. Exhibit 22-4 Probers Eye Purported Estes Threat

John, in Cartwright's book - page 225 - he has some interesting information about an associate of Harrelson's, Jerry O'Brien Watkins, who testified that he had posed as a CIA agent and tried to buy weapons for anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami, a scam which involved Harrelson.

We talked with Cartwright who could remember no details but he said the testimony should be on file in the courthouse down in Edinburgh.

It might be very interesting to find out what year that was and some details on it; if it was in 1962 or 1963 it might be really worth some follow up.

Or somebody might be able to track down Watkins...

- Larry

John, I would tend to agree on the Fred Black connection but my personal view is that Black may have been nothing more than a conduit for a contact from Roselli with Johnson and the leverage for Roselli's essentially blackmailing Johnson not only into supporting the plot but actually in contributing assets to the attack which could be traced to Johnson - firmly tieing him to the conspiracy and ensuring that he did not either inform or simply back out. Anyone working with Johnson surely would not have simply trusted him.

I have written further on that premise but without a fingerprint confirmation it is really all speculation. The argument beyond the fingerprint is based on Glen Sample's work with Loy Factor which is elaborated in Sample's book The Men On The Sixth Floor. I would encourage anyone seriously into the Johnson connection to read and evaluate Glen's work.

-- Lrry