Texas Corruption: The Murder of USDA Agent Henry Marshall

[Gil Jesus]

In 1960 USDA agent Henry Marshall was asked to investigate the activities of Billie Sol Estes. Marshall discovered that over a two year period, Estes had purchased 3,200 acres of cotton allotments from 116 different farmers. Marshall wrote to his superiors in Washington on 31st August, 1960, that: "The regulations should be strengthened to support our disapproval of every case (of allotment transfers)"

When he heard the news, Billie Sol Estes sent his lawyer, John P. Dennison, to meet Marshall in Robertson County. At the meeting on 17th January, 1961, Marshall told Dennison that Estes was clearly involved in a "scheme or device to buy allotments, and will not be approved, and prosecution will follow if this operation is ever used." Marshall was disturbed that as a result of sending a report of his meeting to Washington, he was offered a new post at headquarters. He assumed that Billie Sol Estes had friends in high places and that they wanted him removed from the field office in Robertson County. Marshall refused what he considered to be a bribe.

A week after the meeting between Marshall and Dennison, A. B. Foster, manager of Billie Sol Enterprises, wrote to Clifton C. Carter, a close aide to Lyndon B. Johnson, telling him about the problems that Marshall was causing the company. Foster wrote that "we would sincerely appreciate your investigating this and seeing if anything can be done." Over the next few months Marshall had meetings with eleven county committees in Texas. He pointed out that Billie Sol Estes scheme to buy cotton allotments were illegal. This information was then communicated to those farmers who had been sold their cotton allotments to Billie Sol Enterprises.

On 3rd June, 1961, Marshall was found dead on his farm by the side of his Chevy Fleetside pickup truck. His rifle lay beside him. He had been shot five times with his own rifle. Soon after County Sheriff Howard Stegall arrived, he decreed that Marshall had committed suicide. No pictures were taken of the crime scene, no blood samples were taken of the stains on the truck (the truck was washed and waxed the following day), no check for fingerprints were made on the rifle or pickup.

In the spring of 1962, Billie Sol Estes was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on fraud and conspiracy charges. As a result, the Robertson County grand jury ordered that the body of Marshall should be exhumed and an autopsy performed. After eight hours of examination, Dr. Joseph A. Jachimczyk confirmed that Marshall had not committed suicide. Jachimczyk also discovered a 15 percent carbon monoxide concentration in Marshall's body. Jachimczyk calculated that it could have been as high as 30 percent at the time of death.

On 1st June, 1962, the Dallas Morning News reported that President John F. Kennedy had "taken a personal interest in the mysterious death of Henry Marshall." As a result, the story said, Robert Kennedy "has ordered the FBI to step up its investigation of the case." After JFK's assassination and with Johnson in the White House ( 1964 ), the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations reported that it could find no link between Marshall's death and his efforts to bring to an end Billie Sol Estes' cotton allotment scheme. The following year Billie Sol Estes went to prison for fraud relating to the mostly nonexistent fertilizer tanks he had put up for collateral as part of the cotton allotment scam. He was released in 1971 but he was later sent back to prison for mail fraud and non-payment of income tax.

Billie Sol Estes was released from prison in December, 1983. Three months later he appeared before the Robertson County grand jury. He confessed that Henry Marshall was murdered because it was feared he would "blow the whistle" on the cotton allotment scam. Billie Sol Estes claimed that Marshall was murdered on the orders of Lyndon B. Johnson, who was afraid that his own role in this scam would become public knowledge.

According to Estes, Clifton C. Carter, Johnson's long-term aide, had ordered Marshall to approve 138 cotton allotment transfers. The grand jury rejected the testimony of Billie Sol Estes. Carter, Wallace and Johnson were all dead and could not confirm Billie Sol's testimony. However, the Grand Jury did change the verdict on the death of Henry Marshall from suicide to death by gunshot.

The fact that Marshall's cause of death was originally listed as a suicide as a result of five shots from a bolt-action .22 rifle is just one example of how corrupt the Texas justice system was. The fact that the US Senate Subcommittee investigating the corruption shut it down after JFK's assassination exposes the extent of corruption at the Federal level. 

The "deep state" was back in power and had spoken, just as it had during the Warren Commission investigation.

I would particularly be interested in any and all input to this posting from our own Mr. Douglas Caddy, who was Billie Sol Estes' attorney.

 

 

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Gil Jesus

[Joe Bauer]

I don't know how any rational person could not believe that LBJ was corrupt enough to order or at least green light murders of his most threatening enemies.

Folks....LBJ WAS that corrupt!  Time to quit living in a fantasy world and accept this truth.

And he had his own hit man in Malcolm Wallace who owed LBJ the ultimate price for getting him off a trial jury verdict reached Murder With Malice conviction and life time prison sentence.

 

 

[Ken Davies]

 Can anyone cite an example of someone committing suicide by shooting themselves 5 times with a rifle? (perhaps a .22 calibre is too small to be called  a rifle in Texas?)

  Magic bullets, magic guns, magic justice. Is that how things worked in Texas in LBJ 's time? 

[Charles Blackmon]

22 minutes ago, Ken Davies said:

 Can anyone cite an example of someone committing suicide by shooting themselves 5 times with a rifle? (perhaps a .22 calibre is too small to be called  a rifle in Texas?)

  Magic bullets, magic guns, magic justice. Is that how things worked in Texas in LBJ 's time? 

Sounds familiar. Like the fate of at least one of the JFK assassination witnesses or someone who "knew too much". I would have to pull the Richard Belzer book up and check.

[Joe Bauer]

1 hour ago, Ken Davies said:

 Can anyone cite an example of someone committing suicide by shooting themselves 5 times with a rifle? (perhaps a .22 calibre is too small to be called  a rifle in Texas?)

  Magic bullets, magic guns, magic justice. Is that how things worked in Texas in LBJ 's time? 

The truth is so screamingly obvious!

Of course Marshall was brutally murdered! 

LBJ Texas good ole boys were able to corrupt justice so outrageously back in those days it was hard to accept the reality of it all.

Marshall's murder. Malcolm Wallace walking away from a murder conviction?

Rigged elections. Owned Judges. Corrupted police.

Talk about the Wild Wild West?

That was Texas and Texas/LBJ style corruption back in the 40's, 50's and 60's.

Corruption beyond most people's comprehension.

Robert Caro does not truly capture this massive Texas corruption reality in his LBJ books imo. The true depths of it from top to bottom. 

Barr McClellan in his book "Blood, Money And Power" does.

McClellan describes the absolute power LBJ mentor Ed Clark had over the entire state of Texas in his time. Corrupted power from top to bottom.

Like I say, until we acknowledge this Texas/LBJ corruption reality (hard to believe as it is ) we will never be capable of accepting the truth about LBJ and what he was capable of and probably did in his corrupt life...including murders.

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Joe Bauer

[Gil Jesus]

1 hour ago, Ken Davies said:

 Can anyone cite an example of someone committing suicide by shooting themselves 5 times with a rifle? (perhaps a .22 calibre is too small to be called  a rifle in Texas?)

 

And a bolt-action rifle at that. This is just one way the criminal justice system worked in the South in the 1950s and 60s.

If you were black and arrested for a crime you didn't commit and they didn't have enough evidence on you, the sheriff would release you at midnight. Down the road in the darkness, was a pickup truck full of Klansmen waiting for you. The next morning, they'd find your body hanging from a tree. Suicide. They'd say you just couldn't handle the guilt. Your friends and relatives would never know the truth: that you were innocent and you were murdered.

Sometimes, you'd just end up hanging in your cell. Suicide, same reason. They'd say you just couldn't handle your guilt.

With this history of terrorist tactics, is there any wonder why black men today are afraid of the police ?

And Southern law enforcement treated suspected Communists no better.

I'm not surprised that Jack Ruby had access to the DPD headquarters and the police made no effort to surround the prisoner Oswald which gave Ruby a clear and unobstructed shot. Anyone with LE experience would look at this transfer and see it for the joke it was. Oswald was led into an ambush just like Kennedy was led into an ambush. Same M.O..

I've studied the history of the 50s and 60s so I know about Southern Justice. Remember the 1964 torture and murder of the three Civil Rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi ? All they were trying to do was to register blacks to vote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Chaney,_Goodman,_and_Schwerner

Or the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers, who also was trying to register black people to vote ? Shot in the back right in his own driveway. An all-white jury wouldn't convict those charged.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medgar_Evers

This was how it worked in the South.

 

I remember, one night back in the mid 70s, I was out on patrol and at the time our department operated on a low band frequency that would produce a broadcast "skip" from some southern state. On this one particular night I was able to listen to this southern sheriff's department as they pursued two black men who had escaped from a prison. 

The escapees had stolen a car and gone down a dirt road which ended in a dead end and had bailed out of the car on foot and fled into the woods. The deputy who was in pursuit requested "the sheriff", "the dogs" and "the judge" to all come to the scene.

"My God", I thought, "if they find these guys, they're going to try, convict and execute them right there in the woods."

Whether or not they found them, I don't know. I lost the "skip" shortly after his broadcast.

 

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Gil Jesus

[Joe Bauer]

Anyone that still proposes that Marshall's death was a suicide will be looked at as a mental case. As they should be.

The evidence is beyond debate.

Is there "any" person of renown that still claims Marshall committed suicide?

No. For the logical reason stated above.

And who benefitted by Marshall's death? We all know who.

Marshall messed with the wrong good ole boys down there.

And he got "Texas Justice."

 

[Roger DeLaria]

56 minutes ago, Joe Bauer said:

Anyone that still proposes that Marshall's death was a suicide will be looked at as a mental case. As they should be.

The evidence is beyond debate.

Is there "any" person of renown that still claims Marshall committed suicide?

No. For the logical reason stated above.

And who benefitted by Marshall's death? We all know who.

Marshall messed with the wrong good ole boys down there.

And he got "Texas Justice."

 

No surprise Kennedy's assassination took place in Dallas, TX. 

[Douglas Caddy]

Gil Jesus asked at the beginning of this topic if I had anything to contribute.  I wrote about Billie Sol Estes in my autobiography, Being There: Eyewitness to History, published in 2018. Here is that chapter:

CHAPTER SEVEN

 

BILLIE SOL ESTES AND LBJ

 

           After the Texas Policy Institute under a Moody Foundation grant sponsored a highly successful conference that I had organized in Galveston on the Star Wars project in 1983, Shearn Moody asked that I visit him at his ranch there. He told me that he had received a phone call from his former lobbyist in Austin, Jimmy Day, who was then in the federal prison in Big Spring, Texas. It appeared that Day had moved on to Washington, D.C. after he was no longer working for Shearn and had gotten himself in big trouble there. As explained to me by Shearn, Day on a visit to the White House had clandestinely heisted some White House stationery and then wrote fraudulent letters on it recommending his superior lobbying talents. Shearn termed the felony charge against Day as being “puffery.” In any event Day had called Shearn to say that he wanted Shearn to talk on the phone with another prisoner. When Shearn inquired who that might be, Day said that it was Billie Sol Estes, an infamous criminal whose notoriety approached historical proportions.

       Day gave the phone to Billie Sol who then informed Shearn that he wanted to tell all he knew about his close criminal relationship over many decades with President Lyndon Johnson who had died ten years earlier in 1973. He asked Shearn for a grant from the Moody Foundation that would enable him to do this.

      Shearn, a history buff, requested that I visit with Billie Sol in prison and get more details. A few weeks later I traveled to Big Spring and met with Billie Sol who told me that he had a story to tell about LBJ that would rock the world. I advised him that the best way to do so would be to write a book and his response was that he would think about it. As our meeting ended I said that I would report back to Shearn what he had told me in the event there was a possibility of a Moody Foundation grant.

      Nothing more happened until early January 1984, about six months after my prison visit, when Billie Sol telephoned Shearn from his home in Abilene and said that he had been released from prison and wanted to tell his story in a book under a Moody Foundation grant. Shearn asked that I travel to Abilene and confer further with Billie Sol. Shearn said that for a foundation grant to be awarded it would require a tax-exempt entity agreeing to sponsor Billie Sol’s proposal.

      I arrived in Abilene and talked with Billie Sol who readily agreed that writing a book was the best way to tell his story. This was because after I had visited him in prison he had encouraged his daughter, Pam, to write a book, which she did, “Billie Sol Estes, King of the Wheeler-Dealers.” Her book had been well received and gotten lots of publicity. He said his daughter’s book was only concerned with how the family survived while he was in prison and did not contain any substantive disclosures of his criminal activities with LBJ. He boasted that his tell-all book would be a best-seller.

      I explained to him that a tax-exempt entity had to be the recipient of the foundation grant under which Billie Sol would write his book. He said that would be no problem and picked up the phone and called the President of Abilene Christian University who agreed to meet us later that afternoon. Billie Sol was a prominent member of the Church of Christ and the university was affiliated with that Church. At the meeting the university president agreed that if a Moody Foundation grant were forthcoming to the university a portion of it would be allocated for Billie Sol to write his book.

      Upon returning to Galveston I reported this to Shearn who said that he would sponsor such a Moody Foundation grant in the amount of $500,000 of which $400,000 would go to Abilene Christian University for its unrestricted purposes and $100,000 to Billie Sol. A short time later I returned to Abilene and informed both the university president and Billie Sol of Shearn’s intention of getting a grant approved at the next quarterly meeting of the foundation’s trustees.

     When I told Billie Sol this news he responded that to disclose what he knew of his and LBJ’s criminal activities he would need to receive immunity from prosecution from the U.S. Department of Justice. By a twist of fate I found myself in a position of possibly securing such immunity. Investigative Research Foundation, which had received Moody Foundation grant, was preparing to sponsor a National Conference on Terrorism, this being 1984 when few persons were talking about it. As the organizer of the conference I had retained as a consultant Edward Miller, former associate director of the FBI, to assist in developing the speakers list and agenda. Miller and former assistant director of the FBI, Mark Felt, had been convicted of doing illegal “black bag” jobs against members of the Weather Underground and other far left-wing radical grounds engaged in illegal activist activities such as exploding a bomb in the U.S. Capitol Building that caused a crack in the building’s famous dome. President Ronald Reagan had pardoned them, asserting they were heroes and not criminals. The key person who had shepherded their pardon process to success was Stephen Trott, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division in the Justice Department. Miller believed that he and I could get an appointment with Trott to discuss Billie Sol receiving a grant of immunity.

      About this time Billie Sol voluntarily appeared before a grand jury in Robertson County and testified that LBJ was behind the 1961 murder of U.S. Department of Agriculture official Henry Marshall. The Dallas Morning News of March 23, 1984 in a front page article headlined “Billie Sol Links LBJ to Murder” reported “Franklin, Texas -- Convicted swindler Billie Sol Estes told a grand jury that Lyndon B. Johnson was one of four men who planned the 1961 murder of an agricultural official, sources close the grand jury said Thursday.

     “The sources said Estes testified that the group feared the official would link Estes’ illegal activities to the vice president.

     “Estes, who testified before the Robertson County Grand Jury Tuesday, told grand jurors that Johnson felt pressure to silence Henry Harvey Marshall of Bryan, a regional USDA official in charge of the federal allotment program, sources said.”

      Marshall had been shot five times in the chest and his bolt-action .22 caliber rifle was found nearby in the field where he died.

     As a result of Estes’ testimony the 1984 grand jury voted to change the official death certificate of Marshall entered in 1961 as “Wound by Gunshot Self Inflicted Suicide by Gunshot Wounds Self-Inflicted” to “Wound by Gunshot Homicide by Gunshot Wounds.”

      Estes’ testimony and the action of the Robertson Country grand jury created a sensation throughout Texas.

      Estes appearance before the grand jury had been arranged by Clint Peoples, the U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Texas. Peoples had followed Estes career as a businessman and criminal for 25 years, starting when he was first a Texas Ranger. Estes had introduced me to Peoples and I visited Peoples in his Marshal’s office in the U.S. Courthouse in Dallas on several occasions. During one of these visits Peoples’ pulled out a file from a cabinet that contained a large quantity of material on Estes and LBJ and showed me about a dozen photographs of Henry Marshall’s body when he had been found dead in the field.

     In “Taking care of business: Lawman solves slaying after 23 years of trying,” the Dallas Times Herald of March 23, 1984, reported

For 23 years, solving the murder of Henry Marshall was lawman Clint Peoples’ No. 1 piece of unfinished business.

But Tuesday, the U.S. Marshal’s questions were answered when convicted con man Billy Sol Estes made good on a long-standing promise to Peoples and told a Robertson grand jury everything he knew about the case.

“I feel more relieved now than I’ve felt in my life,” Peoples said Thursday afternoon.

Peoples, the U.S. Marshal for Northern Texas since 1973, originally investigated the case in March 1962, when he was a Texas Ranger. It was one of the very few cases he could not solve.

“I said that as I lived, I would try to solve this case, although I didn’t know if I ever would,” said Peoples, now 73.

He entered the case when the trail was cold….

In 1979, Peoples escorted Estes on a flight from Dallas to the La Tuna federal penitentiary near El Paso after Estes was convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy of mail fraud to conceal assets to avoid paying back taxes.

According the Peoples’ book, he queried Estes about the Marshall murder and said it always had haunted him.

Estes said he knew Marshall was murdered, the book says, and often wanted to tell the ranger that he was “looking in the wrong direction.”

When Peoples asked which way to look, according to the book, Estes said he should look at “people who had the most to lose.”

“Should I be looking in the direction of Washington?,” Peoples asked.

“You are now definitely on the right track,” the book quotes Estes as saying.

     In her book, “Faustian Bargains: Lyndon Johnson and Mac Wallace in the Robber Baron Culture of Texas,” Professor Joan Mellen goes to extraordinary shameful lengths to attack and darken the character of U.S. Marshal Clint Peoples, a truly great American whom  I feel privileged to have known.  Mellen’s book, nevertheless, is definitely worth reading to get an overall picture of what Texas was like when LBJ and his crooked cronies ruled the state unchallenged. Mellen focuses in her book on Malcolm (Mac) Wallace, whom Billie Sol asserted was a stone cold killer that LBJ used when necessary. In her book, Mellen writes, “Mac Wallace is a case in point, his history with Lyndon Johnson is a window into Johnson’s methods. Wallace’s story is so intriguing because, unlike other of Johnson’s acolytes, it is difficult to prove what he did for Lyndon Johnson and what Lyndon Johnson did, in turn, for him. More than any other of Johnson’s protégés and acolytes, Wallace’s connection to him remains cloaked in secrecy.

“In the major events of Mac Wallace’s life, Lyndon Johnson remains invisible. Yet one truth is irrefutable. Everything that was positive and promising in Wallace’s life came to him before he made the acquaintance of Lyndon Baines Johnson and joined Johnson’s circle.”

      Billie Sol asserted that Mac Wallace murdered USDA official Henry Marshall upon the orders of LBJ.

     In the wake of the Robertson County Grand jury action Edward Miller made an appointment for the two of us to visit Assistant Attorney General Stephen Trott in the Justice Department. As a result of that meeting I received the follow letter from Trott dated May 29, 1984:

Dear Mr. Caddy:

RE: Billy Sol Estes

I have considered the materials and information you have provided to me in connection with your representation of Billy Sol Estes. I understand that Mr. Estes claims to have information concerning the possible commission of criminal offenses in Texas in the 1960's and that he is willing to reveal that information at this time. I also understand that Mr. Estes wants several things in exchange for this information, such as a pardon for the offenses for which he has been convicted and immunity from any further prosecution among other things.

Before we can engage in any further discussions concerning Mr. Estes' cooperation or enter into any agreement with Mr. Estes we must know the following things: (1) the information, including the extent of corroborative evidence, that Mr. Estes has about each of the events that may be violations of criminal law; (2) the sources of his information; and (3) the extent of his involvement, if any, in each of those events or any subsequent cover-ups. Until we have detailed information concerning these three things we cannot determine whether any violations of federal criminal law occurred which are within our jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute and, if so, whether the information is credible and otherwise warrants investigation. Accordingly, if we are to proceed with meaningful discussions concerning Mr. Estes' proffered cooperation, we must receive a detailed and specific written offer of proof from you setting forth the information noted above. The government will hold your offer of proof in strictest confidence and will not make any use of it other than to determine the credibility of the proffered information and whether it warrants further discussions with or debriefings of Mr. Estes.

I must make sure that several things are understood at this time concerning Mr. Estes' proffered cooperation. First, if after reviewing your offer of proof we decide the information that Mr. Estes can provide is credible and in all other respects warrants further investigation -- a decision which will be made unilaterally by the government -- it will be necessary for Mr. Estes to be interviewed and to reveal everything he knows about the possible criminal violations. He will have to do so completely, truthfully and without guile. Second, it must be understood that the government is not now making specific promises to Mr. Estes except with respect to the confidentiality and use of your offer of proof as noted above. If it is decided that Mr. Estes should be interviewed, the extent of promises concerning the confidentiality or use of the statement or promises of reward or consideration to Mr. Estes, if any, will be determined only after we receive a detailed written offer of proof from you.

Above all else, I must emphasize that Mr. Estes must act with total honesty and candor in any dealings with the Department of Justice or any investigative agency. If any discussions with or debriefings of Mr. Estes take place after receipt of your offer of proof and if any agreement ultimately is reached after Mr. Estes provides a statement, the government will not be bound by any representations or agreements it makes if any of his statements at any time are false, misleading or materially incomplete or if he knowingly fails to act with total honesty and candor.

Sincerely
Stephen S. Trott
Assistant Attorney General
Criminal Division

Upon receipt Trott’s letter I conferred with Billie Sol who provided me with information that would be contained in a letter of proffer to be sent back to Trott in response. His daughter, Pam, was present when he disclosed the information to me. Here is my letter back to Assistant Attorney General Trott:

August 9, 1984

Mr. Stephen S. Trott
Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D. C. 20530

RE: Mr. Billie Sol Estes

Dear Mr. Trott:

My client, Mr. Estes, has authorized me to make this reply to your letter of May 29, 1984. Mr. Estes was a member of a four-member group, headed by Lyndon Johnson, which committed criminal acts in Texas in the 1960's. The other two, besides Mr. Estes and LBJ, were Cliff Carter and Mac Wallace. Mr. Estes is willing to disclose his knowledge concerning the following criminal offenses:

I. Murders

1. The killing of Henry Marshall
2. The killing of George Krutilek
3. The killing of Ike Rogers and his secretary
4. The killing of Harold Orr
5. The killing of Coleman Wade
6. The killing of Josefa Johnson
7. The killing of John Kinser
8. The killing of President J. F. Kennedy.

Mr. Estes is willing to testify that LBJ ordered these killings, and that he transmitted his orders through Cliff Carter to Mac Wallace, who executed the murders. In the cases of murders nos. 1-7, Mr. Estes' knowledge of the precise details concerning the way the murders were executed stems from conversations he had shortly after each event with Cliff Carter and Mac Wallace.

In addition, a short time after Mr. Estes was released from prison in 1971, he met with Cliff Carter and they reminisced about what had occurred in the past, including the murders. During their conversation, Carter orally compiled a list of 17 murders which had been committed, some of which Mr. Estes was unfamiliar. A living witness was present at that meeting and should be willing to testify about it. He is Kyle Brown, recently of Houston and now living in Brady, Texas.

Mr. Estes states that Mac Wallace, whom he describes as a "stone killer" with a communist background, recruited Jack Ruby, who in turn recruited Lee Harvey Oswald. Mr. Estes says that Cliff Carter told him that Mac Wallace fired a shot from the grassy knoll in Dallas, which hit JFK from the front during the assassination.

Mr. Estes declares that Cliff Carter told him the day Kennedy was killed, Fidel Castro also was supposed to be assassinated and that Robert Kennedy, awaiting word of Castro's death, instead received news of his brother's killing.

Mr. Estes says that the Mafia did not participate in the Kennedy assassination but that its participation was discussed prior to the event, but rejected by LBJ, who believed if the Mafia were involved, he would never be out from under its blackmail.

Mr. Estes asserts that Mr. Ronnie Clark, of Wichita, Kansas, has attempted on several occasions to engage him in conversation. Mr. Clark, who is a frequent visitor to Las Vegas, has indicated in these conversations a detailed knowledge corresponding to Mr. Estes' knowledge of the JFK assassination. Mr. Clark claims to have met with Mr. Jack Ruby a few days prior to the assassination, at which time Kennedy's planned murder was discussed.

Mr. Estes declares that discussions were had with Jimmy Hoffa concerning having his aide, Larry Cabell, kill Robert Kennedy while the latter drove around in his convertible.

Mr. Estes has records of his phone calls during the relevant years to key persons mentioned in the foregoing account.

II. The Illegal Cotton Allotments

Mr. Estes desires to discuss the infamous illegal cotton allotment schemes in great detail. He has recordings made at the time of LBJ, Cliff Carter and himself discussing the scheme. These recordings were made with Cliff Carter's knowledge as a means of Carter and Estes protecting themselves should LBJ order their deaths.

Mr. Estes believes these tape recordings and the rumors of other recordings allegedly in his possession are the reason he has not been murdered.

III. Illegal Payoffs

Mr. Estes is willing to disclose illegal payoff schemes, in which he collected and passed on to Cliff Carter and LBJ millions of dollars. Mr. Estes collected payoff money on more than one occasion from George and Herman Brown of Brown and Root, which was delivered to LBJ.

In your letter of May 29, 1984, you request "(1) the information, including the extent of corroborative evidence, that Mr. Estes sources of his information, and (3) the extent of his involvement, if any, in each of those events or any subsequent cover-ups."

In connection with Item # 1, I wish to declare, as Mr. Estes' attorney, that Mr. Estes is prepared without reservation to provide all the information he has. Most of the information contained in this letter I obtained from him yesterday for the first time. While Mr. Estes has been pre-occupied by this knowledge almost every day for the last 22 years, it was not until we began talking yesterday that he could face up to disclosing it to another person. My impression from our conversation yesterday is that Mr. Estes, in the proper setting, will be able to recall and orally recount criminal matters. It is also my impression that his interrogation in such a setting will elicit additional corroborative evidence as his memory is stimulated.

In connection with your Item #2, Mr. Estes has attempted in this letter to provide his sources of information.

In connection with your Item #3, Mr. Estes states that he never participated in any of the murders. It may be alleged that he participated in subsequent cover-ups. His response to this is that had he conducted himself any differently, he, too, would have been a murder victim.

Mr. Estes wishes to confirm that he will abide by the conditions set forth in your letter and that he plans to act with total honesty and candor in any dealings with the Department of Justice or any federal investigative agency.

In return for his cooperation, Mr. Estes wishes in exchange his being given immunity, his parole restrictions being lifted and favorable consideration being given to recommending his long-standing tax leins being removed and his obtaining a pardon.

Sincerely yours,

Douglas Caddy

The full four letters can be found online using google.

      Two other murders bedsides that of Henry Marshall merit examination here because they are interrelated. These are the murders of John Kinser in 1951 and of Josefa Johnson, Lyndon’s sister in 1961, ten years later.

      The inside flyleaf of Mellen’s book is illuminating. It reads:

Perhaps no other president has a more ambiguous reputation than Lyndon Johnson. A brilliant tactician, he maneuvered colleagues and turned bills into law better than anyone. But he was trailed by a legacy of underhanded dealings, from his “stolen” Senate election in 1948 to kickbacks he artfully concealed from deals engineered with Texas wheeler-dealer Billie Sol Estes, defense contractors, and his Senate aid Bobby Baker. On the verge of investigation, Johnson was reprieved when he became president upon John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

Among the remaining mysteries of his life has been LBJ’s relationship with Malcolm “Mac” Wallace, who, in 1951, shot a Texas man having an affair with LBJ’s loose-cannon sister Josefa, also Wallace’s lover. When arrested, Wallace coolly said, “I work for Johnson…I have to get back to Washington.” Charged with murder, he was overnight defended by LBJ’s powerful lawyer John Cofer, and though convicted, amazingly received a suspended sentence. He then received a secret security clearance to work for LBJ friend and defense contractor D.H. Byrd, which the Office of Naval Intelligence tried to revoke for years without success.

     Billie Sol claimed that John Kinser was killed by Mac Wallace upon being ordered to do so by LBJ because Josefa had disclosed too many of LBJ’s secret criminal activities that threatened his goal of ascendancy to the presidency.

     In 1984 I arranged for Lucianne Goldberg, a prominent literary agent in New York City who later became famous in the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, to meet with Billie Sol and me in Abilene to discuss his writing a book and getting it published. Among the murders he disclosed at our meeting with that of Josefa Johnson, LBJ’s sister. Billie Sol asserted that in 1961, Josefa was served on Christmas Eve a portion of a cake that contained poison and that she died the next day and was quietly buried the following day in the Johnson family cemetery on the Johnson ranch.

      Billie Sol in his autobiography “Billie Sol Estes: A Texas Legend” writes about this:

For a time after the Kinser death, Josefa Johnson kept her mouth shut, but soon there were additional reports of her talking. In the end it was decided she could never be trusted. On Christmas day [1961] she became ill and died. I was told she was given poison. When Cliff [Carter] told me this, I had an empty feeling in my stomach. My family is dear to me. I would never consider doing something to them. I believe Lyndon was guided  by the vision of his destiny and considered the sacrifice was needed by the people.

In 1971, my discussion with Cliff Carter centered on his disgust with the murders.

      At the meeting in Abilene attended by Lucianne Goldberg, Billie Sol remarked about the mysterious circumstances that surrounded the death of the daughter of John Connally who died on her wedding night. Lucianne was familiar with the mystery. Billie Sol added that the only man LBJ was ever afraid of was John Connally, one of LBJ’s political allies, because Connally was even more ruthless than LBJ.

     As the result of Edward Miller and I meeting with Assistant Attorney General Trott he arranged for three young FBI agents to examine the agency’s file on Billie Sol to determine if the pursuit of granting immunity to him was warranted. They concluded it was and the three agents and I flew from Washington to Abilene to meet with Billie Sol to hear what he had to say. Billie Sol showed up at the meeting at a hotel with his daughter, Pam, and immediately stated he would not talk to the FBI agents and was withdrawing from negotiations to gain immunity. He was adamant about this, so the three agents departed and flew back to Washington.

      Billie Sol in his autobiography writes:

After a further series of letters, a meeting was set up at a hotel in Abilene. As the day approached, I received a series of telephone calls from my Italian friends. I was informed my discussions with the Justice Department was a mistake. They insisted that if I appeared to be going through with the discussions, my life would end. I do not know how they found out about the discussions. Now I may be dumb but I am not stupid and I do not have a death wish.

     In my letter of proffer to Assistant Attorney General Trott in which I listed in behalf Billie Sol what he would disclose I purposely omitted one startling and controversial item for fear that it would cause the Justice Department to reject outright any discussion of immunity. This was that Billie Sol had confessed to me that he had paid a $500,000 bribe to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark when the Supreme Court was considering a case in which Billie Sol was appealing his conviction for violating Texas law. Billie Sol said that the $500,000 in cash was delivered to President Johnson on Johnson’s plane at an airport in Texas by Billie Sol and his lawyer, John Cofer. LBJ later disbursed the bribe to Justice Clark, who originally was from Dallas and was part of the Texas Mafia

Here is a summary of the case in which Estes alleged that a bribe was paid:

381 U.S. 532 (85 S.Ct. 1628, 14 L.Ed.2d 543)

Billie Sol ESTES, Petitioner, v. STATE OF TEXAS.

No. 256.

Argued: April 1, 1965.

Decided: June 7, 1965.

• opinion, CLARK
• concurrence, WARREN, DOUGLAS, GOLDBERG  
• concurrence, WARREN, HARLAN
• dissent, STEWART, BLACK, BRENNAN, WHITE  
• dissent, WHITE, BRENNAN

See 86 S.Ct. 18.

John D. Cofer and Hume Cofer, Austin, Tex., for petitioner.

Waggoner Carr, Austin, Tex., and Leon Jaworski, Houston, Tex., for respondent.

Justice CLARK delivered the opinion of the Court.

The question presented here is whether the petitioner, who stands convicted in the District Court for the Seventh Judicial District of Texas at Tyler for swindling, was deprived of his right under the Fourteenth Amendment to due process by the televising and broadcasting of his trial. Both the trial court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found against the petitioner. We hold to the contrary and reverse his conviction.

     The average American citizen would be shocked upon hearing that a U.S. Supreme Court justice had taken a bribe in a case and had even written the court’s opinion in the case. No doubt that the same citizen would be shocked upon learning that another Srpreme Court justice, who had been appointed to the bench by President Johnson, was accused to accepting money then forced to resign from the court.

Here an article from politico.com on the subject:

Abe Fortas resigns from Supreme Court May 15, 1969

By Andrew Glass

05/15/2008 04:12 AM EDT

On this day in 1969, Abe Fortas, denying he had done anything wrong, resigned from the Supreme Court to return to private law practice. In stepping down, Fortas became the first Supreme Court justice to resign under threat of impeachment.

In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson nominated Abe Fortas (1910-1982), at the time an associate justice, to succeed Earl Warren as chief justice. In becoming the first such nominee to appear before a Senate committee, Fortas faced hostile questioning about his relationship with LBJ, which had improperly continued while he served on the high tribunal.

Fortas cemented his friendship with the future president in 1948 when LBJ sought the Senate nomination in Texas. He won the Democratic primary contest by 87 votes. His opponent, Coke Stevenson, persuaded a federal judge to take Johnson’s name off the general election ballot while allegations of corruption — including 200 votes cast in alphabetical order for LBJ — were investigated. But after Fortas persuaded Justice Hugo Black to overturn the ruling, Johnson managed to win the general election.

On the Senate floor, conservative senators mounted a filibuster against the chief justice nomination, using as a wedge issue Fortas’ acceptance of a $15,000 fee for a series of university seminars. When supporters could muster only 45 of the 59 votes needed to end debate, Fortas asked the president to withdraw his name — becoming the first nominee for that post since 1795 to fail to win Senate approval.

Soon, a larger problem arose. In 1966, Fortas took a secret retainer from the family foundation of Wall Street financier Louis Wolfson, a friend and former client subsequently imprisoned for securities violations. The deal provided that in return for unspecified advice, Fortas was to receive $20,000 a year for life.

Disclosure of the retainer effectively ended Fortas’ judicial career.

     John Cofer represented Billie Sol in his 1965 case before the Supreme Court. Cofer, like Fortas, was involved in rigging the 1948 election that sent LBJ to the Senate. Cofer was Mac Wallace’s attorney in the 1951 homicide trial in which Wallace was found guilty of homicide with malice aforethought in the murder of John Kinser but was awarded a suspended sentence. Cofer was Billie Sol’s attorney in his state and federal criminal cases.

     One of the more startling disclosures in Billie Sol’s autobiography is his belief that the deaths of Mac Wallace, Cliff Carter and John Cofer were not natural. Apparently each of them knew too much about LBJ’s criminal activities and LBJ’s secret financial empire.

     In 1998 California producer Lyle Sardie released a fascinating and encompassing documentary, “LBJ: A Closer Look.” It traces Johnson’s fraudulent rise to power and his behind the scene involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy. I was privileged to be among those interviewed in the documentary, which can be viewed on YouTube.

Edited February 9, 2023 by Douglas Caddy

[Gil Jesus]

10 hours ago, Douglas Caddy said:

Gil Jesus asked at the beginning of this topic is I had anything to contribute.  I wrote about Billie Sol Estes in my autobiography, Being There: Eyewitness to History, published in 2018. Here is that chapter:

CHAPTER SEVEN

 

BILLIE SOL ESTES AND LBJ

 

           After the Texas Policy Institute under a Moody Foundation grant sponsored a highly successful conference that I had organized in Galveston on the Star Wars project in 1983, Shearn Moody asked that I visit him at his ranch there. He told me that he had received a phone call from his former lobbyist in Austin, Jimmy Day, who was then in the federal prison in Big Spring, Texas. It appeared that Day had moved on to Washington, D.C. after he was no longer working for Shearn and had gotten himself in big trouble there. As explained to me by Shearn, Day on a visit to the White House had clandestinely heisted some White House stationery and then wrote fraudulent letters on it recommending his superior lobbying talents. Shearn termed the felony charge against Day as being “puffery.” In any event Day had called Shearn to say that he wanted Shearn to talk on the phone with another prisoner. When Shearn inquired who that might be, Day said that it was Billie Sol Estes, an infamous criminal whose notoriety approached historical proportions.

       Day gave the phone to Billie Sol who then informed Shearn that he wanted to tell all he knew about his close criminal relationship over many decades with President Lyndon Johnson who had died ten years earlier in 1973. He asked Shearn for a grant from the Moody Foundation that would enable him to do this.

      Shearn, a history buff, requested that I visit with Billie Sol in prison and get more details. A few weeks later I traveled to Big Spring and met with Billie Sol who told me that he had a story to tell about LBJ that would rock the world. I advised him that the best way to do so would be to write a book and his response was that he would think about it. As our meeting ended I said that I would report back to Shearn what he had told me in the event there was a possibility of a Moody Foundation grant.

      Nothing more happened until early January 1984, about six months after my prison visit, when Billie Sol telephoned Shearn from his home in Abilene and said that he had been released from prison and wanted to tell his story in a book under a Moody Foundation grant. Shearn asked that I travel to Abilene and confer further with Billie Sol. Shearn said that for a foundation grant to be awarded it would require a tax-exempt entity agreeing to sponsor Billie Sol’s proposal.

      I arrived in Abilene and talked with Billie Sol who readily agreed that writing a book was the best way to tell his story. This was because after I had visited him in prison he had encouraged his daughter, Pam, to write a book, which she did, “Billie Sol Estes, King of the Wheeler-Dealers.” Her book had been well received and gotten lots of publicity. He said his daughter’s book was only concerned with how the family survived while he was in prison and did not contain any substantive disclosures of his criminal activities with LBJ. He boasted that his tell-all book would be a best-seller.

      I explained to him that a tax-exempt entity had to be the recipient of the foundation grant under which Billie Sol would write his book. He said that would be no problem and picked up the phone and called the President of Abilene Christian University who agreed to meet us later that afternoon. Billie Sol was a prominent member of the Church of Christ and the university was affiliated with that Church. At the meeting the university president agreed that if a Moody Foundation grant were forthcoming to the university a portion of it would be allocated for Billie Sol to write his book.

      Upon returning to Galveston I reported this to Shearn who said that he would sponsor such a Moody Foundation grant in the amount of $500,000 of which $400,000 would go to Abilene Christian University for its unrestricted purposes and $100,000 to Billie Sol. A short time later I returned to Abilene and informed both the university president and Billie Sol of Shearn’s intention of getting a grant approved at the next quarterly meeting of the foundation’s trustees.

     When I told Billie Sol this news he responded that to disclose what he knew of his and LBJ’s criminal activities he would need to receive immunity from prosecution from the U.S. Department of Justice. By a twist of fate I found myself in a position of possibly securing such immunity. Investigative Research Foundation, which had received Moody Foundation grant, was preparing to sponsor a National Conference on Terrorism, this being 1984 when few persons were talking about it. As the organizer of the conference I had retained as a consultant Edward Miller, former associate director of the FBI, to assist in developing the speakers list and agenda. Miller and former assistant director of the FBI, Mark Felt, had been convicted of doing illegal “black bag” jobs against members of the Weather Underground and other far left-wing radical grounds engaged in illegal activist activities such as exploding a bomb in the U.S. Capitol Building that caused a crack in the building’s famous dome. President Ronald Reagan had pardoned them, asserting they were heroes and not criminals. The key person who had shepherded their pardon process to success was Stephen Trott, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division in the Justice Department. Miller believed that he and I could get an appointment with Trott to discuss Billie Sol receiving a grant of immunity.

      About this time Billie Sol voluntarily appeared before a grand jury in Robertson County and testified that LBJ was behind the 1961 murder of U.S. Department of Agriculture official Henry Marshall. The Dallas Morning News of March 23, 1984 in a front page article headlined “Billie Sol Links LBJ to Murder” reported “Franklin, Texas -- Convicted swindler Billie Sol Estes told a grand jury that Lyndon B. Johnson was one of four men who planned the 1961 murder of an agricultural official, sources close the grand jury said Thursday.

     “The sources said Estes testified that the group feared the official would link Estes’ illegal activities to the vice president.

     “Estes, who testified before the Robertson County Grand Jury Tuesday, told grand jurors that Johnson felt pressure to silence Henry Harvey Marshall of Bryan, a regional USDA official in charge of the federal allotment program, sources said.”

      Marshall had been shot five times in the chest and his bolt-action .22 caliber rifle was found nearby in the field where he died.

     As a result of Estes’ testimony the 1984 grand jury voted to change the official death certificate of Marshall entered in 1961 as “Wound by Gunshot Self Inflicted Suicide by Gunshot Wounds Self-Inflicted” to “Wound by Gunshot Homicide by Gunshot Wounds.”

      Estes’ testimony and the action of the Robertson Country grand jury created a sensation throughout Texas.

      Estes appearance before the grand jury had been arranged by Clint Peoples, the U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Texas. Peoples had followed Estes career as a businessman and criminal for 25 years, starting when he was first a Texas Ranger. Estes had introduced me to Peoples and I visited Peoples in his Marshal’s office in the U.S. Courthouse in Dallas on several occasions. During one of these visits Peoples’ pulled out a file from a cabinet that contained a large quantity of material on Estes and LBJ and showed me about a dozen photographs of Henry Marshall’s body when he had been found dead in the field.

     In “Taking care of business: Lawman solves slaying after 23 years of trying,” the Dallas Times Herald of March 23, 1984, reported

For 23 years, solving the murder of Henry Marshall was lawman Clint Peoples’ No. 1 piece of unfinished business.

But Tuesday, the U.S. Marshal’s questions were answered when convicted con man Billy Sol Estes made good on a long-standing promise to Peoples and told a Robertson grand jury everything he knew about the case.

“I feel more relieved now than I’ve felt in my life,” Peoples said Thursday afternoon.

Peoples, the U.S. Marshal for Northern Texas since 1973, originally investigated the case in March 1962, when he was a Texas Ranger. It was one of the very few cases he could not solve.

“I said that as I lived, I would try to solve this case, although I didn’t know if I ever would,” said Peoples, now 73.

He entered the case when the trail was cold….

In 1979, Peoples escorted Estes on a flight from Dallas to the La Tuna federal penitentiary near El Paso after Estes was convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy of mail fraud to conceal assets to avoid paying back taxes.

According the Peoples’ book, he queried Estes about the Marshall murder and said it always had haunted him.

Estes said he knew Marshall was murdered, the book says, and often wanted to tell the ranger that he was “looking in the wrong direction.”

When Peoples asked which way to look, according to the book, Estes said he should look at “people who had the most to lose.”

“Should I be looking in the direction of Washington?,” Peoples asked.

“You are now definitely on the right track,” the book quotes Estes as saying.

     In her book, “Faustian Bargains: Lyndon Johnson and Mac Wallace in the Robber Baron Culture of Texas,” Professor Joan Mellen goes to extraordinary shameful lengths to attack and darken the character of U.S. Marshal Clint Peoples, a truly great American whom  I feel privileged to have known.  Mellen’s book, nevertheless, is definitely worth reading to get an overall picture of what Texas was like when LBJ and his crooked cronies ruled the state unchallenged. Mellen focuses in her book on Malcolm (Mac) Wallace, whom Billie Sol asserted was a stone cold killer that LBJ used when necessary. In her book, Mellen writes, “Mac Wallace is a case in point, his history with Lyndon Johnson is a window into Johnson’s methods. Wallace’s story is so intriguing because, unlike other of Johnson’s acolytes, it is difficult to prove what he did for Lyndon Johnson and what Lyndon Johnson did, in turn, for him. More than any other of Johnson’s protégés and acolytes, Wallace’s connection to him remains cloaked in secrecy.

“In the major events of Mac Wallace’s life, Lyndon Johnson remains invisible. Yet one truth is irrefutable. Everything that was positive and promising in Wallace’s life came to him before he made the acquaintance of Lyndon Baines Johnson and joined Johnson’s circle.”

      Billie Sol asserted that Mac Wallace murdered USDA official Henry Marshall upon the orders of LBJ.

     In the wake of the Robertson County Grand jury action Edward Miller made an appointment for the two of us to visit Assistant Attorney General Stephen Trott in the Justice Department. As a result of that meeting I received the follow letter from Trott dated May 29, 1984:

Dear Mr. Caddy:

RE: Billy Sol Estes

I have considered the materials and information you have provided to me in connection with your representation of Billy Sol Estes. I understand that Mr. Estes claims to have information concerning the possible commission of criminal offenses in Texas in the 1960's and that he is willing to reveal that information at this time. I also understand that Mr. Estes wants several things in exchange for this information, such as a pardon for the offenses for which he has been convicted and immunity from any further prosecution among other things.

Before we can engage in any further discussions concerning Mr. Estes' cooperation or enter into any agreement with Mr. Estes we must know the following things: (1) the information, including the extent of corroborative evidence, that Mr. Estes has about each of the events that may be violations of criminal law; (2) the sources of his information; and (3) the extent of his involvement, if any, in each of those events or any subsequent cover-ups. Until we have detailed information concerning these three things we cannot determine whether any violations of federal criminal law occurred which are within our jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute and, if so, whether the information is credible and otherwise warrants investigation. Accordingly, if we are to proceed with meaningful discussions concerning Mr. Estes' proffered cooperation, we must receive a detailed and specific written offer of proof from you setting forth the information noted above. The government will hold your offer of proof in strictest confidence and will not make any use of it other than to determine the credibility of the proffered information and whether it warrants further discussions with or debriefings of Mr. Estes.

I must make sure that several things are understood at this time concerning Mr. Estes' proffered cooperation. First, if after reviewing your offer of proof we decide the information that Mr. Estes can provide is credible and in all other respects warrants further investigation -- a decision which will be made unilaterally by the government -- it will be necessary for Mr. Estes to be interviewed and to reveal everything he knows about the possible criminal violations. He will have to do so completely, truthfully and without guile. Second, it must be understood that the government is not now making specific promises to Mr. Estes except with respect to the confidentiality and use of your offer of proof as noted above. If it is decided that Mr. Estes should be interviewed, the extent of promises concerning the confidentiality or use of the statement or promises of reward or consideration to Mr. Estes, if any, will be determined only after we receive a detailed written offer of proof from you.

Above all else, I must emphasize that Mr. Estes must act with total honesty and candor in any dealings with the Department of Justice or any investigative agency. If any discussions with or debriefings of Mr. Estes take place after receipt of your offer of proof and if any agreement ultimately is reached after Mr. Estes provides a statement, the government will not be bound by any representations or agreements it makes if any of his statements at any time are false, misleading or materially incomplete or if he knowingly fails to act with total honesty and candor.

Sincerely
Stephen S. Trott
Assistant Attorney General
Criminal Division

Upon receipt Trott’s letter I conferred with Billie Sol who provided me with information that would be contained in a letter of proffer to be sent back to Trott in response. His daughter, Pam, was present when he disclosed the information to me. Here is my letter back to Assistant Attorney General Trott:

August 9, 1984

Mr. Stephen S. Trott
Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D. C. 20530

RE: Mr. Billie Sol Estes

Dear Mr. Trott:

My client, Mr. Estes, has authorized me to make this reply to your letter of May 29, 1984. Mr. Estes was a member of a four-member group, headed by Lyndon Johnson, which committed criminal acts in Texas in the 1960's. The other two, besides Mr. Estes and LBJ, were Cliff Carter and Mac Wallace. Mr. Estes is willing to disclose his knowledge concerning the following criminal offenses:

I. Murders

1. The killing of Henry Marshall
2. The killing of George Krutilek
3. The killing of Ike Rogers and his secretary
4. The killing of Harold Orr
5. The killing of Coleman Wade
6. The killing of Josefa Johnson
7. The killing of John Kinser
8. The killing of President J. F. Kennedy.

Mr. Estes is willing to testify that LBJ ordered these killings, and that he transmitted his orders through Cliff Carter to Mac Wallace, who executed the murders. In the cases of murders nos. 1-7, Mr. Estes' knowledge of the precise details concerning the way the murders were executed stems from conversations he had shortly after each event with Cliff Carter and Mac Wallace.

In addition, a short time after Mr. Estes was released from prison in 1971, he met with Cliff Carter and they reminisced about what had occurred in the past, including the murders. During their conversation, Carter orally compiled a list of 17 murders which had been committed, some of which Mr. Estes was unfamiliar. A living witness was present at that meeting and should be willing to testify about it. He is Kyle Brown, recently of Houston and now living in Brady, Texas.

Mr. Estes states that Mac Wallace, whom he describes as a "stone killer" with a communist background, recruited Jack Ruby, who in turn recruited Lee Harvey Oswald. Mr. Estes says that Cliff Carter told him that Mac Wallace fired a shot from the grassy knoll in Dallas, which hit JFK from the front during the assassination.

Mr. Estes declares that Cliff Carter told him the day Kennedy was killed, Fidel Castro also was supposed to be assassinated and that Robert Kennedy, awaiting word of Castro's death, instead received news of his brother's killing.

Mr. Estes says that the Mafia did not participate in the Kennedy assassination but that its participation was discussed prior to the event, but rejected by LBJ, who believed if the Mafia were involved, he would never be out from under its blackmail.

Mr. Estes asserts that Mr. Ronnie Clark, of Wichita, Kansas, has attempted on several occasions to engage him in conversation. Mr. Clark, who is a frequent visitor to Las Vegas, has indicated in these conversations a detailed knowledge corresponding to Mr. Estes' knowledge of the JFK assassination. Mr. Clark claims to have met with Mr. Jack Ruby a few days prior to the assassination, at which time Kennedy's planned murder was discussed.

Mr. Estes declares that discussions were had with Jimmy Hoffa concerning having his aide, Larry Cabell, kill Robert Kennedy while the latter drove around in his convertible.

Mr. Estes has records of his phone calls during the relevant years to key persons mentioned in the foregoing account.

II. The Illegal Cotton Allotments

Mr. Estes desires to discuss the infamous illegal cotton allotment schemes in great detail. He has recordings made at the time of LBJ, Cliff Carter and himself discussing the scheme. These recordings were made with Cliff Carter's knowledge as a means of Carter and Estes protecting themselves should LBJ order their deaths.

Mr. Estes believes these tape recordings and the rumors of other recordings allegedly in his possession are the reason he has not been murdered.

III. Illegal Payoffs

Mr. Estes is willing to disclose illegal payoff schemes, in which he collected and passed on to Cliff Carter and LBJ millions of dollars. Mr. Estes collected payoff money on more than one occasion from George and Herman Brown of Brown and Root, which was delivered to LBJ.

In your letter of May 29, 1984, you request "(1) the information, including the extent of corroborative evidence, that Mr. Estes sources of his information, and (3) the extent of his involvement, if any, in each of those events or any subsequent cover-ups."

In connection with Item # 1, I wish to declare, as Mr. Estes' attorney, that Mr. Estes is prepared without reservation to provide all the information he has. Most of the information contained in this letter I obtained from him yesterday for the first time. While Mr. Estes has been pre-occupied by this knowledge almost every day for the last 22 years, it was not until we began talking yesterday that he could face up to disclosing it to another person. My impression from our conversation yesterday is that Mr. Estes, in the proper setting, will be able to recall and orally recount criminal matters. It is also my impression that his interrogation in such a setting will elicit additional corroborative evidence as his memory is stimulated.

In connection with your Item #2, Mr. Estes has attempted in this letter to provide his sources of information.

In connection with your Item #3, Mr. Estes states that he never participated in any of the murders. It may be alleged that he participated in subsequent cover-ups. His response to this is that had he conducted himself any differently, he, too, would have been a murder victim.

Mr. Estes wishes to confirm that he will abide by the conditions set forth in your letter and that he plans to act with total honesty and candor in any dealings with the Department of Justice or any federal investigative agency.

In return for his cooperation, Mr. Estes wishes in exchange his being given immunity, his parole restrictions being lifted and favorable consideration being given to recommending his long-standing tax leins being removed and his obtaining a pardon.

Sincerely yours,

Douglas Caddy

The full four letters can be found online using google.

      Two other murders bedsides that of Henry Marshall merit examination here because they are interrelated. These are the murders of John Kinser in 1951 and of Josefa Johnson, Lyndon’s sister in 1961, ten years later.

      The inside flyleaf of Mellen’s book is illuminating. It reads:

Perhaps no other president has a more ambiguous reputation than Lyndon Johnson. A brilliant tactician, he maneuvered colleagues and turned bills into law better than anyone. But he was trailed by a legacy of underhanded dealings, from his “stolen” Senate election in 1948 to kickbacks he artfully concealed from deals engineered with Texas wheeler-dealer Billie Sol Estes, defense contractors, and his Senate aid Bobby Baker. On the verge of investigation, Johnson was reprieved when he became president upon John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

Among the remaining mysteries of his life has been LBJ’s relationship with Malcolm “Mac” Wallace, who, in 1951, shot a Texas man having an affair with LBJ’s loose-cannon sister Josefa, also Wallace’s lover. When arrested, Wallace coolly said, “I work for Johnson…I have to get back to Washington.” Charged with murder, he was overnight defended by LBJ’s powerful lawyer John Cofer, and though convicted, amazingly received a suspended sentence. He then received a secret security clearance to work for LBJ friend and defense contractor D.H. Byrd, which the Office of Naval Intelligence tried to revoke for years without success.

     Billie Sol claimed that John Kinser was killed by Mac Wallace upon being ordered to do so by LBJ because Josefa had disclosed too many of LBJ’s secret criminal activities that threatened his goal of ascendancy to the presidency.

     In 1984 I arranged for Lucianne Goldberg, a prominent literary agent in New York City who later became famous in the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, to meet with Billie Sol and me in Abilene to discuss his writing a book and getting it published. Among the murders he disclosed at our meeting with that of Josefa Johnson, LBJ’s sister. Billie Sol asserted that in 1961, Josefa was served on Christmas Eve a portion of a cake that contained poison and that she died the next day and was quietly buried the following day in the Johnson family cemetery on the Johnson ranch.

      Billie Sol in his autobiography “Billie Sol Estes: A Texas Legend” writes about this:

For a time after the Kinser death, Josefa Johnson kept her mouth shut, but soon there were additional reports of her talking. In the end it was decided she could never be trusted. On Christmas day [1961] she became ill and died. I was told she was given poison. When Cliff [Carter] told me this, I had an empty feeling in my stomach. My family is dear to me. I would never consider doing something to them. I believe Lyndon was guided  by the vision of his destiny and considered the sacrifice was needed by the people.

In 1971, my discussion with Cliff Carter centered on his disgust with the murders.

      At the meeting in Abilene attended by Lucianne Goldberg, Billie Sol remarked about the mysterious circumstances that surrounded the death of the daughter of John Connally who died on her wedding night. Lucianne was familiar with the mystery. Billie Sol added that the only man LBJ was ever afraid of was John Connally, one of LBJ’s political allies, because Connally was even more ruthless than LBJ.

     As the result of Edward Miller and I meeting with Assistant Attorney General Trott he arranged for three young FBI agents to examine the agency’s file on Billie Sol to determine if the pursuit of granting immunity to him was warranted. They concluded it was and the three agents and I flew from Washington to Abilene to meet with Billie Sol to hear what he had to say. Billie Sol showed up at the meeting at a hotel with his daughter, Pam, and immediately stated he would not talk to the FBI agents and was withdrawing from negotiations to gain immunity. He was adamant about this, so the three agents departed and flew back to Washington.

      Billie Sol in his autobiography writes:

After a further series of letters, a meeting was set up at a hotel in Abilene. As the day approached, I received a series of telephone calls from my Italian friends. I was informed my discussions with the Justice Department was a mistake. They insisted that if I appeared to be going through with the discussions, my life would end. I do not know how they found out about the discussions. Now I may be dumb but I am not stupid and I do not have a death wish.

     In my letter of proffer to Assistant Attorney General Trott in which I listed in behalf Billie Sol what he would disclose I purposely omitted one startling and controversial item for fear that it would cause the Justice Department to reject outright any discussion of immunity. This was that Billie Sol had confessed to me that he had paid a $500,000 bribe to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark when the Supreme Court was considering a case in which Billie Sol was appealing his conviction for violating Texas law. Billie Sol said that the $500,000 in cash was delivered to President Johnson on Johnson’s plane at an airport in Texas by Billie Sol and his lawyer, John Cofer. LBJ later disbursed the bribe to Justice Clark, who originally was from Dallas and was part of the Texas Mafia

Here is a summary of the case in which Estes alleged that a bribe was paid:

381 U.S. 532 (85 S.Ct. 1628, 14 L.Ed.2d 543)

Billie Sol ESTES, Petitioner, v. STATE OF TEXAS.

No. 256.

Argued: April 1, 1965.

Decided: June 7, 1965.

• opinion, CLARK
• concurrence, WARREN, DOUGLAS, GOLDBERG  
• concurrence, WARREN, HARLAN
• dissent, STEWART, BLACK, BRENNAN, WHITE  
• dissent, WHITE, BRENNAN

See 86 S.Ct. 18.

John D. Cofer and Hume Cofer, Austin, Tex., for petitioner.

Waggoner Carr, Austin, Tex., and Leon Jaworski, Houston, Tex., for respondent.

Justice CLARK delivered the opinion of the Court.

The question presented here is whether the petitioner, who stands convicted in the District Court for the Seventh Judicial District of Texas at Tyler for swindling, was deprived of his right under the Fourteenth Amendment to due process by the televising and broadcasting of his trial. Both the trial court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found against the petitioner. We hold to the contrary and reverse his conviction.

     The average American citizen would be shocked upon hearing that a U.S. Supreme Court justice had taken a bribe in a case and had even written the court’s opinion in the case. No doubt that the same citizen would be shocked upon learning that another Srpreme Court justice, who had been appointed to the bench by President Johnson, was accused to accepting money then forced to resign from the court.

Here an article from politico.com on the subject:

Abe Fortas resigns from Supreme Court May 15, 1969

By Andrew Glass

05/15/2008 04:12 AM EDT

On this day in 1969, Abe Fortas, denying he had done anything wrong, resigned from the Supreme Court to return to private law practice. In stepping down, Fortas became the first Supreme Court justice to resign under threat of impeachment.

In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson nominated Abe Fortas (1910-1982), at the time an associate justice, to succeed Earl Warren as chief justice. In becoming the first such nominee to appear before a Senate committee, Fortas faced hostile questioning about his relationship with LBJ, which had improperly continued while he served on the high tribunal.

Fortas cemented his friendship with the future president in 1948 when LBJ sought the Senate nomination in Texas. He won the Democratic primary contest by 87 votes. His opponent, Coke Stevenson, persuaded a federal judge to take Johnson’s name off the general election ballot while allegations of corruption — including 200 votes cast in alphabetical order for LBJ — were investigated. But after Fortas persuaded Justice Hugo Black to overturn the ruling, Johnson managed to win the general election.

On the Senate floor, conservative senators mounted a filibuster against the chief justice nomination, using as a wedge issue Fortas’ acceptance of a $15,000 fee for a series of university seminars. When supporters could muster only 45 of the 59 votes needed to end debate, Fortas asked the president to withdraw his name — becoming the first nominee for that post since 1795 to fail to win Senate approval.

Soon, a larger problem arose. In 1966, Fortas took a secret retainer from the family foundation of Wall Street financier Louis Wolfson, a friend and former client subsequently imprisoned for securities violations. The deal provided that in return for unspecified advice, Fortas was to receive $20,000 a year for life.

Disclosure of the retainer effectively ended Fortas’ judicial career.

     John Cofer represented Billie Sol in his 1965 case before the Supreme Court. Cofer, like Fortas, was involved in rigging the 1948 election that sent LBJ to the Senate. Cofer was Mac Wallace’s attorney in the 1951 homicide trial in which Wallace was found guilty of homicide with malice aforethought in the murder of John Kinser but was awarded a suspended sentence. Cofer was Billie Sol’s attorney in his state and federal criminal cases.

     One of the more startling disclosures in Billie Sol’s autobiography is his belief that the deaths of Mac Wallace, Cliff Carter and John Cofer were not natural. Apparently each of them knew too much about LBJ’s criminal activities and LBJ’s secret financial empire.

     In 1998 California producer Lyle Sardie released a fascinating and encompassing documentary, “LBJ: A Closer Look.” It traces Johnson’s fraudulent rise to power and his behind the scene involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy. I was privileged to be among those interviewed in the documentary, which can be viewed on YouTube.

Thank You, Mr. Caddy. It's always nice to have first hand accounts from people who were there.

[Joe Bauer]

13 hours ago, Douglas Caddy said:

Gil Jesus asked at the beginning of this topic is I had anything to contribute.  I wrote about Billie Sol Estes in my autobiography, Being There: Eyewitness to History, published in 2018. Here is that chapter:

CHAPTER SEVEN

 

BILLIE SOL ESTES AND LBJ

 

           After the Texas Policy Institute under a Moody Foundation grant sponsored a highly successful conference that I had organized in Galveston on the Star Wars project in 1983, Shearn Moody asked that I visit him at his ranch there. He told me that he had received a phone call from his former lobbyist in Austin, Jimmy Day, who was then in the federal prison in Big Spring, Texas. It appeared that Day had moved on to Washington, D.C. after he was no longer working for Shearn and had gotten himself in big trouble there. As explained to me by Shearn, Day on a visit to the White House had clandestinely heisted some White House stationery and then wrote fraudulent letters on it recommending his superior lobbying talents. Shearn termed the felony charge against Day as being “puffery.” In any event Day had called Shearn to say that he wanted Shearn to talk on the phone with another prisoner. When Shearn inquired who that might be, Day said that it was Billie Sol Estes, an infamous criminal whose notoriety approached historical proportions.

       Day gave the phone to Billie Sol who then informed Shearn that he wanted to tell all he knew about his close criminal relationship over many decades with President Lyndon Johnson who had died ten years earlier in 1973. He asked Shearn for a grant from the Moody Foundation that would enable him to do this.

      Shearn, a history buff, requested that I visit with Billie Sol in prison and get more details. A few weeks later I traveled to Big Spring and met with Billie Sol who told me that he had a story to tell about LBJ that would rock the world. I advised him that the best way to do so would be to write a book and his response was that he would think about it. As our meeting ended I said that I would report back to Shearn what he had told me in the event there was a possibility of a Moody Foundation grant.

      Nothing more happened until early January 1984, about six months after my prison visit, when Billie Sol telephoned Shearn from his home in Abilene and said that he had been released from prison and wanted to tell his story in a book under a Moody Foundation grant. Shearn asked that I travel to Abilene and confer further with Billie Sol. Shearn said that for a foundation grant to be awarded it would require a tax-exempt entity agreeing to sponsor Billie Sol’s proposal.

      I arrived in Abilene and talked with Billie Sol who readily agreed that writing a book was the best way to tell his story. This was because after I had visited him in prison he had encouraged his daughter, Pam, to write a book, which she did, “Billie Sol Estes, King of the Wheeler-Dealers.” Her book had been well received and gotten lots of publicity. He said his daughter’s book was only concerned with how the family survived while he was in prison and did not contain any substantive disclosures of his criminal activities with LBJ. He boasted that his tell-all book would be a best-seller.

      I explained to him that a tax-exempt entity had to be the recipient of the foundation grant under which Billie Sol would write his book. He said that would be no problem and picked up the phone and called the President of Abilene Christian University who agreed to meet us later that afternoon. Billie Sol was a prominent member of the Church of Christ and the university was affiliated with that Church. At the meeting the university president agreed that if a Moody Foundation grant were forthcoming to the university a portion of it would be allocated for Billie Sol to write his book.

      Upon returning to Galveston I reported this to Shearn who said that he would sponsor such a Moody Foundation grant in the amount of $500,000 of which $400,000 would go to Abilene Christian University for its unrestricted purposes and $100,000 to Billie Sol. A short time later I returned to Abilene and informed both the university president and Billie Sol of Shearn’s intention of getting a grant approved at the next quarterly meeting of the foundation’s trustees.

     When I told Billie Sol this news he responded that to disclose what he knew of his and LBJ’s criminal activities he would need to receive immunity from prosecution from the U.S. Department of Justice. By a twist of fate I found myself in a position of possibly securing such immunity. Investigative Research Foundation, which had received Moody Foundation grant, was preparing to sponsor a National Conference on Terrorism, this being 1984 when few persons were talking about it. As the organizer of the conference I had retained as a consultant Edward Miller, former associate director of the FBI, to assist in developing the speakers list and agenda. Miller and former assistant director of the FBI, Mark Felt, had been convicted of doing illegal “black bag” jobs against members of the Weather Underground and other far left-wing radical grounds engaged in illegal activist activities such as exploding a bomb in the U.S. Capitol Building that caused a crack in the building’s famous dome. President Ronald Reagan had pardoned them, asserting they were heroes and not criminals. The key person who had shepherded their pardon process to success was Stephen Trott, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division in the Justice Department. Miller believed that he and I could get an appointment with Trott to discuss Billie Sol receiving a grant of immunity.

      About this time Billie Sol voluntarily appeared before a grand jury in Robertson County and testified that LBJ was behind the 1961 murder of U.S. Department of Agriculture official Henry Marshall. The Dallas Morning News of March 23, 1984 in a front page article headlined “Billie Sol Links LBJ to Murder” reported “Franklin, Texas -- Convicted swindler Billie Sol Estes told a grand jury that Lyndon B. Johnson was one of four men who planned the 1961 murder of an agricultural official, sources close the grand jury said Thursday.

     “The sources said Estes testified that the group feared the official would link Estes’ illegal activities to the vice president.

     “Estes, who testified before the Robertson County Grand Jury Tuesday, told grand jurors that Johnson felt pressure to silence Henry Harvey Marshall of Bryan, a regional USDA official in charge of the federal allotment program, sources said.”

      Marshall had been shot five times in the chest and his bolt-action .22 caliber rifle was found nearby in the field where he died.

     As a result of Estes’ testimony the 1984 grand jury voted to change the official death certificate of Marshall entered in 1961 as “Wound by Gunshot Self Inflicted Suicide by Gunshot Wounds Self-Inflicted” to “Wound by Gunshot Homicide by Gunshot Wounds.”

      Estes’ testimony and the action of the Robertson Country grand jury created a sensation throughout Texas.

      Estes appearance before the grand jury had been arranged by Clint Peoples, the U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Texas. Peoples had followed Estes career as a businessman and criminal for 25 years, starting when he was first a Texas Ranger. Estes had introduced me to Peoples and I visited Peoples in his Marshal’s office in the U.S. Courthouse in Dallas on several occasions. During one of these visits Peoples’ pulled out a file from a cabinet that contained a large quantity of material on Estes and LBJ and showed me about a dozen photographs of Henry Marshall’s body when he had been found dead in the field.

     In “Taking care of business: Lawman solves slaying after 23 years of trying,” the Dallas Times Herald of March 23, 1984, reported

For 23 years, solving the murder of Henry Marshall was lawman Clint Peoples’ No. 1 piece of unfinished business.

But Tuesday, the U.S. Marshal’s questions were answered when convicted con man Billy Sol Estes made good on a long-standing promise to Peoples and told a Robertson grand jury everything he knew about the case.

“I feel more relieved now than I’ve felt in my life,” Peoples said Thursday afternoon.

Peoples, the U.S. Marshal for Northern Texas since 1973, originally investigated the case in March 1962, when he was a Texas Ranger. It was one of the very few cases he could not solve.

“I said that as I lived, I would try to solve this case, although I didn’t know if I ever would,” said Peoples, now 73.

He entered the case when the trail was cold….

In 1979, Peoples escorted Estes on a flight from Dallas to the La Tuna federal penitentiary near El Paso after Estes was convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy of mail fraud to conceal assets to avoid paying back taxes.

According the Peoples’ book, he queried Estes about the Marshall murder and said it always had haunted him.

Estes said he knew Marshall was murdered, the book says, and often wanted to tell the ranger that he was “looking in the wrong direction.”

When Peoples asked which way to look, according to the book, Estes said he should look at “people who had the most to lose.”

“Should I be looking in the direction of Washington?,” Peoples asked.

“You are now definitely on the right track,” the book quotes Estes as saying.

     In her book, “Faustian Bargains: Lyndon Johnson and Mac Wallace in the Robber Baron Culture of Texas,” Professor Joan Mellen goes to extraordinary shameful lengths to attack and darken the character of U.S. Marshal Clint Peoples, a truly great American whom  I feel privileged to have known.  Mellen’s book, nevertheless, is definitely worth reading to get an overall picture of what Texas was like when LBJ and his crooked cronies ruled the state unchallenged. Mellen focuses in her book on Malcolm (Mac) Wallace, whom Billie Sol asserted was a stone cold killer that LBJ used when necessary. In her book, Mellen writes, “Mac Wallace is a case in point, his history with Lyndon Johnson is a window into Johnson’s methods. Wallace’s story is so intriguing because, unlike other of Johnson’s acolytes, it is difficult to prove what he did for Lyndon Johnson and what Lyndon Johnson did, in turn, for him. More than any other of Johnson’s protégés and acolytes, Wallace’s connection to him remains cloaked in secrecy.

“In the major events of Mac Wallace’s life, Lyndon Johnson remains invisible. Yet one truth is irrefutable. Everything that was positive and promising in Wallace’s life came to him before he made the acquaintance of Lyndon Baines Johnson and joined Johnson’s circle.”

      Billie Sol asserted that Mac Wallace murdered USDA official Henry Marshall upon the orders of LBJ.

     In the wake of the Robertson County Grand jury action Edward Miller made an appointment for the two of us to visit Assistant Attorney General Stephen Trott in the Justice Department. As a result of that meeting I received the follow letter from Trott dated May 29, 1984:

Dear Mr. Caddy:

RE: Billy Sol Estes

I have considered the materials and information you have provided to me in connection with your representation of Billy Sol Estes. I understand that Mr. Estes claims to have information concerning the possible commission of criminal offenses in Texas in the 1960's and that he is willing to reveal that information at this time. I also understand that Mr. Estes wants several things in exchange for this information, such as a pardon for the offenses for which he has been convicted and immunity from any further prosecution among other things.

Before we can engage in any further discussions concerning Mr. Estes' cooperation or enter into any agreement with Mr. Estes we must know the following things: (1) the information, including the extent of corroborative evidence, that Mr. Estes has about each of the events that may be violations of criminal law; (2) the sources of his information; and (3) the extent of his involvement, if any, in each of those events or any subsequent cover-ups. Until we have detailed information concerning these three things we cannot determine whether any violations of federal criminal law occurred which are within our jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute and, if so, whether the information is credible and otherwise warrants investigation. Accordingly, if we are to proceed with meaningful discussions concerning Mr. Estes' proffered cooperation, we must receive a detailed and specific written offer of proof from you setting forth the information noted above. The government will hold your offer of proof in strictest confidence and will not make any use of it other than to determine the credibility of the proffered information and whether it warrants further discussions with or debriefings of Mr. Estes.

I must make sure that several things are understood at this time concerning Mr. Estes' proffered cooperation. First, if after reviewing your offer of proof we decide the information that Mr. Estes can provide is credible and in all other respects warrants further investigation -- a decision which will be made unilaterally by the government -- it will be necessary for Mr. Estes to be interviewed and to reveal everything he knows about the possible criminal violations. He will have to do so completely, truthfully and without guile. Second, it must be understood that the government is not now making specific promises to Mr. Estes except with respect to the confidentiality and use of your offer of proof as noted above. If it is decided that Mr. Estes should be interviewed, the extent of promises concerning the confidentiality or use of the statement or promises of reward or consideration to Mr. Estes, if any, will be determined only after we receive a detailed written offer of proof from you.

Above all else, I must emphasize that Mr. Estes must act with total honesty and candor in any dealings with the Department of Justice or any investigative agency. If any discussions with or debriefings of Mr. Estes take place after receipt of your offer of proof and if any agreement ultimately is reached after Mr. Estes provides a statement, the government will not be bound by any representations or agreements it makes if any of his statements at any time are false, misleading or materially incomplete or if he knowingly fails to act with total honesty and candor.

Sincerely
Stephen S. Trott
Assistant Attorney General
Criminal Division

Upon receipt Trott’s letter I conferred with Billie Sol who provided me with information that would be contained in a letter of proffer to be sent back to Trott in response. His daughter, Pam, was present when he disclosed the information to me. Here is my letter back to Assistant Attorney General Trott:

August 9, 1984

Mr. Stephen S. Trott
Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D. C. 20530

RE: Mr. Billie Sol Estes

Dear Mr. Trott:

My client, Mr. Estes, has authorized me to make this reply to your letter of May 29, 1984. Mr. Estes was a member of a four-member group, headed by Lyndon Johnson, which committed criminal acts in Texas in the 1960's. The other two, besides Mr. Estes and LBJ, were Cliff Carter and Mac Wallace. Mr. Estes is willing to disclose his knowledge concerning the following criminal offenses:

I. Murders

1. The killing of Henry Marshall
2. The killing of George Krutilek
3. The killing of Ike Rogers and his secretary
4. The killing of Harold Orr
5. The killing of Coleman Wade
6. The killing of Josefa Johnson
7. The killing of John Kinser
8. The killing of President J. F. Kennedy.

Mr. Estes is willing to testify that LBJ ordered these killings, and that he transmitted his orders through Cliff Carter to Mac Wallace, who executed the murders. In the cases of murders nos. 1-7, Mr. Estes' knowledge of the precise details concerning the way the murders were executed stems from conversations he had shortly after each event with Cliff Carter and Mac Wallace.

In addition, a short time after Mr. Estes was released from prison in 1971, he met with Cliff Carter and they reminisced about what had occurred in the past, including the murders. During their conversation, Carter orally compiled a list of 17 murders which had been committed, some of which Mr. Estes was unfamiliar. A living witness was present at that meeting and should be willing to testify about it. He is Kyle Brown, recently of Houston and now living in Brady, Texas.

Mr. Estes states that Mac Wallace, whom he describes as a "stone killer" with a communist background, recruited Jack Ruby, who in turn recruited Lee Harvey Oswald. Mr. Estes says that Cliff Carter told him that Mac Wallace fired a shot from the grassy knoll in Dallas, which hit JFK from the front during the assassination.

Mr. Estes declares that Cliff Carter told him the day Kennedy was killed, Fidel Castro also was supposed to be assassinated and that Robert Kennedy, awaiting word of Castro's death, instead received news of his brother's killing.

Mr. Estes says that the Mafia did not participate in the Kennedy assassination but that its participation was discussed prior to the event, but rejected by LBJ, who believed if the Mafia were involved, he would never be out from under its blackmail.

Mr. Estes asserts that Mr. Ronnie Clark, of Wichita, Kansas, has attempted on several occasions to engage him in conversation. Mr. Clark, who is a frequent visitor to Las Vegas, has indicated in these conversations a detailed knowledge corresponding to Mr. Estes' knowledge of the JFK assassination. Mr. Clark claims to have met with Mr. Jack Ruby a few days prior to the assassination, at which time Kennedy's planned murder was discussed.

Mr. Estes declares that discussions were had with Jimmy Hoffa concerning having his aide, Larry Cabell, kill Robert Kennedy while the latter drove around in his convertible.

Mr. Estes has records of his phone calls during the relevant years to key persons mentioned in the foregoing account.

II. The Illegal Cotton Allotments

Mr. Estes desires to discuss the infamous illegal cotton allotment schemes in great detail. He has recordings made at the time of LBJ, Cliff Carter and himself discussing the scheme. These recordings were made with Cliff Carter's knowledge as a means of Carter and Estes protecting themselves should LBJ order their deaths.

Mr. Estes believes these tape recordings and the rumors of other recordings allegedly in his possession are the reason he has not been murdered.

III. Illegal Payoffs

Mr. Estes is willing to disclose illegal payoff schemes, in which he collected and passed on to Cliff Carter and LBJ millions of dollars. Mr. Estes collected payoff money on more than one occasion from George and Herman Brown of Brown and Root, which was delivered to LBJ.

In your letter of May 29, 1984, you request "(1) the information, including the extent of corroborative evidence, that Mr. Estes sources of his information, and (3) the extent of his involvement, if any, in each of those events or any subsequent cover-ups."

In connection with Item # 1, I wish to declare, as Mr. Estes' attorney, that Mr. Estes is prepared without reservation to provide all the information he has. Most of the information contained in this letter I obtained from him yesterday for the first time. While Mr. Estes has been pre-occupied by this knowledge almost every day for the last 22 years, it was not until we began talking yesterday that he could face up to disclosing it to another person. My impression from our conversation yesterday is that Mr. Estes, in the proper setting, will be able to recall and orally recount criminal matters. It is also my impression that his interrogation in such a setting will elicit additional corroborative evidence as his memory is stimulated.

In connection with your Item #2, Mr. Estes has attempted in this letter to provide his sources of information.

In connection with your Item #3, Mr. Estes states that he never participated in any of the murders. It may be alleged that he participated in subsequent cover-ups. His response to this is that had he conducted himself any differently, he, too, would have been a murder victim.

Mr. Estes wishes to confirm that he will abide by the conditions set forth in your letter and that he plans to act with total honesty and candor in any dealings with the Department of Justice or any federal investigative agency.

In return for his cooperation, Mr. Estes wishes in exchange his being given immunity, his parole restrictions being lifted and favorable consideration being given to recommending his long-standing tax leins being removed and his obtaining a pardon.

Sincerely yours,

Douglas Caddy

The full four letters can be found online using google.

      Two other murders bedsides that of Henry Marshall merit examination here because they are interrelated. These are the murders of John Kinser in 1951 and of Josefa Johnson, Lyndon’s sister in 1961, ten years later.

      The inside flyleaf of Mellen’s book is illuminating. It reads:

Perhaps no other president has a more ambiguous reputation than Lyndon Johnson. A brilliant tactician, he maneuvered colleagues and turned bills into law better than anyone. But he was trailed by a legacy of underhanded dealings, from his “stolen” Senate election in 1948 to kickbacks he artfully concealed from deals engineered with Texas wheeler-dealer Billie Sol Estes, defense contractors, and his Senate aid Bobby Baker. On the verge of investigation, Johnson was reprieved when he became president upon John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

Among the remaining mysteries of his life has been LBJ’s relationship with Malcolm “Mac” Wallace, who, in 1951, shot a Texas man having an affair with LBJ’s loose-cannon sister Josefa, also Wallace’s lover. When arrested, Wallace coolly said, “I work for Johnson…I have to get back to Washington.” Charged with murder, he was overnight defended by LBJ’s powerful lawyer John Cofer, and though convicted, amazingly received a suspended sentence. He then received a secret security clearance to work for LBJ friend and defense contractor D.H. Byrd, which the Office of Naval Intelligence tried to revoke for years without success.

     Billie Sol claimed that John Kinser was killed by Mac Wallace upon being ordered to do so by LBJ because Josefa had disclosed too many of LBJ’s secret criminal activities that threatened his goal of ascendancy to the presidency.

     In 1984 I arranged for Lucianne Goldberg, a prominent literary agent in New York City who later became famous in the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, to meet with Billie Sol and me in Abilene to discuss his writing a book and getting it published. Among the murders he disclosed at our meeting with that of Josefa Johnson, LBJ’s sister. Billie Sol asserted that in 1961, Josefa was served on Christmas Eve a portion of a cake that contained poison and that she died the next day and was quietly buried the following day in the Johnson family cemetery on the Johnson ranch.

      Billie Sol in his autobiography “Billie Sol Estes: A Texas Legend” writes about this:

For a time after the Kinser death, Josefa Johnson kept her mouth shut, but soon there were additional reports of her talking. In the end it was decided she could never be trusted. On Christmas day [1961] she became ill and died. I was told she was given poison. When Cliff [Carter] told me this, I had an empty feeling in my stomach. My family is dear to me. I would never consider doing something to them. I believe Lyndon was guided  by the vision of his destiny and considered the sacrifice was needed by the people.

In 1971, my discussion with Cliff Carter centered on his disgust with the murders.

      At the meeting in Abilene attended by Lucianne Goldberg, Billie Sol remarked about the mysterious circumstances that surrounded the death of the daughter of John Connally who died on her wedding night. Lucianne was familiar with the mystery. Billie Sol added that the only man LBJ was ever afraid of was John Connally, one of LBJ’s political allies, because Connally was even more ruthless than LBJ.

     As the result of Edward Miller and I meeting with Assistant Attorney General Trott he arranged for three young FBI agents to examine the agency’s file on Billie Sol to determine if the pursuit of granting immunity to him was warranted. They concluded it was and the three agents and I flew from Washington to Abilene to meet with Billie Sol to hear what he had to say. Billie Sol showed up at the meeting at a hotel with his daughter, Pam, and immediately stated he would not talk to the FBI agents and was withdrawing from negotiations to gain immunity. He was adamant about this, so the three agents departed and flew back to Washington.

      Billie Sol in his autobiography writes:

After a further series of letters, a meeting was set up at a hotel in Abilene. As the day approached, I received a series of telephone calls from my Italian friends. I was informed my discussions with the Justice Department was a mistake. They insisted that if I appeared to be going through with the discussions, my life would end. I do not know how they found out about the discussions. Now I may be dumb but I am not stupid and I do not have a death wish.

     In my letter of proffer to Assistant Attorney General Trott in which I listed in behalf Billie Sol what he would disclose I purposely omitted one startling and controversial item for fear that it would cause the Justice Department to reject outright any discussion of immunity. This was that Billie Sol had confessed to me that he had paid a $500,000 bribe to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark when the Supreme Court was considering a case in which Billie Sol was appealing his conviction for violating Texas law. Billie Sol said that the $500,000 in cash was delivered to President Johnson on Johnson’s plane at an airport in Texas by Billie Sol and his lawyer, John Cofer. LBJ later disbursed the bribe to Justice Clark, who originally was from Dallas and was part of the Texas Mafia

Here is a summary of the case in which Estes alleged that a bribe was paid:

381 U.S. 532 (85 S.Ct. 1628, 14 L.Ed.2d 543)

Billie Sol ESTES, Petitioner, v. STATE OF TEXAS.

No. 256.

Argued: April 1, 1965.

Decided: June 7, 1965.

• opinion, CLARK
• concurrence, WARREN, DOUGLAS, GOLDBERG  
• concurrence, WARREN, HARLAN
• dissent, STEWART, BLACK, BRENNAN, WHITE  
• dissent, WHITE, BRENNAN

See 86 S.Ct. 18.

John D. Cofer and Hume Cofer, Austin, Tex., for petitioner.

Waggoner Carr, Austin, Tex., and Leon Jaworski, Houston, Tex., for respondent.

Justice CLARK delivered the opinion of the Court.

The question presented here is whether the petitioner, who stands convicted in the District Court for the Seventh Judicial District of Texas at Tyler for swindling, was deprived of his right under the Fourteenth Amendment to due process by the televising and broadcasting of his trial. Both the trial court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found against the petitioner. We hold to the contrary and reverse his conviction.

     The average American citizen would be shocked upon hearing that a U.S. Supreme Court justice had taken a bribe in a case and had even written the court’s opinion in the case. No doubt that the same citizen would be shocked upon learning that another Srpreme Court justice, who had been appointed to the bench by President Johnson, was accused to accepting money then forced to resign from the court.

Here an article from politico.com on the subject:

Abe Fortas resigns from Supreme Court May 15, 1969

By Andrew Glass

05/15/2008 04:12 AM EDT

On this day in 1969, Abe Fortas, denying he had done anything wrong, resigned from the Supreme Court to return to private law practice. In stepping down, Fortas became the first Supreme Court justice to resign under threat of impeachment.

In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson nominated Abe Fortas (1910-1982), at the time an associate justice, to succeed Earl Warren as chief justice. In becoming the first such nominee to appear before a Senate committee, Fortas faced hostile questioning about his relationship with LBJ, which had improperly continued while he served on the high tribunal.

Fortas cemented his friendship with the future president in 1948 when LBJ sought the Senate nomination in Texas. He won the Democratic primary contest by 87 votes. His opponent, Coke Stevenson, persuaded a federal judge to take Johnson’s name off the general election ballot while allegations of corruption — including 200 votes cast in alphabetical order for LBJ — were investigated. But after Fortas persuaded Justice Hugo Black to overturn the ruling, Johnson managed to win the general election.

On the Senate floor, conservative senators mounted a filibuster against the chief justice nomination, using as a wedge issue Fortas’ acceptance of a $15,000 fee for a series of university seminars. When supporters could muster only 45 of the 59 votes needed to end debate, Fortas asked the president to withdraw his name — becoming the first nominee for that post since 1795 to fail to win Senate approval.

Soon, a larger problem arose. In 1966, Fortas took a secret retainer from the family foundation of Wall Street financier Louis Wolfson, a friend and former client subsequently imprisoned for securities violations. The deal provided that in return for unspecified advice, Fortas was to receive $20,000 a year for life.

Disclosure of the retainer effectively ended Fortas’ judicial career.

     John Cofer represented Billie Sol in his 1965 case before the Supreme Court. Cofer, like Fortas, was involved in rigging the 1948 election that sent LBJ to the Senate. Cofer was Mac Wallace’s attorney in the 1951 homicide trial in which Wallace was found guilty of homicide with malice aforethought in the murder of John Kinser but was awarded a suspended sentence. Cofer was Billie Sol’s attorney in his state and federal criminal cases.

     One of the more startling disclosures in Billie Sol’s autobiography is his belief that the deaths of Mac Wallace, Cliff Carter and John Cofer were not natural. Apparently each of them knew too much about LBJ’s criminal activities and LBJ’s secret financial empire.

     In 1998 California producer Lyle Sardie released a fascinating and encompassing documentary, “LBJ: A Closer Look.” It traces Johnson’s fraudulent rise to power and his behind the scene involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy. I was privileged to be among those interviewed in the documentary, which can be viewed on YouTube.

The truth will set you free.

If you allow it to.

[Douglas Caddy]

1 hour ago, Joe Bauer said:

The truth will set you free.

If you allow it to.

Thank you, Joe, for this. I shall use it in the book I am writing.,

[Joe Bauer]

1 hour ago, Douglas Caddy said:

Thank you, Joe, for this. I shall use it in the book I am writing.,

Thank "you" DC...for everything you have given to so many.

Years and years and thousands of hours of hard work, time and expense to try to enlighten us with important truths.

Truths purposely hidden and buried by forces whose agendas were never about promoting American Democracy and the common good.

Doug, please let me know when your book is published and I can buy a copy personally signed by you?

[Paul Cummings]

Would it surprise anyone if LBJ made "the" call and that's why Fritz and Decker met in private the night of the JFKA?