Moody, Maceo, Mitchell, and Maheu

[Pat Speer]

Douglas Caddy has written that he was hired by the Moody family of Galveston to represent Billie Sol Estes. Billie Sol in turn implicated LBJ in the assassination. This was shortly after the HSCA implicated Marcello and Trafficante in the assassination. After reading this from Caddy, I wondered if perhaps the whole Estes affair was not designed to throw the hound dogs off the trail. I knew that the Moody family was quite powerful in Galveston and that the Maceo family, also from Galveston, ran a criminal gambling empire that included Dallas, had ties to Jack Ruby, and, more importantly, had ties to Lansky, Marcello, and Trafficante. But this was all conjecture..

While reading Sally Denton and Roger Morris' The Money and the Power, however, I came across their assertion that the Moodys were connected to the Maceo family, and that the Moodys, even after the Maceo brothers died, continued on in the gambling trade, through an insurance company with massive investments in various Vegas hotels. Many of these hotels had ties to Lansky as well.

Another piece of the puzzle comes from the realization that Galveston oilmen Johnny Mitchell (and his still-living billionaire brother George) were close friends with the Maceo brothers. So who is Johnny Mitchell, you might ask? Johnny Mitchell was my dad's boss at Jade Oil when I was a kid. I met him a number of times. He'd hand you a silver dollar and wink at you. Anyhow, when this really gets interesting, at least for me, is when you throw in that Mitchell was, according to Robert Maheu's memoirs, a close friend of Maheu's. He is in fact pretty much the only non-intelligence agent, non-lawyer, non-mobster, non-Hughes employee, in Maheu's book. Making it even more intriguing is that Maheu's wife purportedly met Mitchell and his wife in Florida, Trafficante's stomping ground.

While all this probably means nothing, there is this additional fact. My mom has been telling the story for years that when LBJ came to Los Angeles in 67 or 68 to stay at the Century Plaza Hotel, the Secret Service tailed Mitchell and my father. Jade Oil's Century City offices were right down the street and Mitchell was purportedly placed on a watch list.. She said LBJ hated Mitchell from way back. I never believed her until recently. If one considers that it was around this time that LBJ read the IG report on the hits on Castro, and that, as a result, LBJ would have reason to suspect Maheu's and Rosselli's involvement in Kennedy's death, it makes sense that he would want the SS to keep close tabs on Maheu's friends, particularly oilmen with mob ties and with whom he had had a long-term feud.

I recently uncovered this AP article from May 22, 1967. This was shortly after word had leaked about the Castro hits. This may have been around the time LBJ visited Los Angeles...(I still haven't placed an exact day to the visit.) Anyhow, the article reads...

"More and more oilmen are saying President Johnson has junked his 1963 decision that the Interior Department--not the White House--set national oil policy. Johnson made the decison just 18 days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It was interpreted as an obvious effort for the new President to free himself in advance of any suggestion his Texas background might influence such policy matters. The decision drew relatively little criticism until two months ago when the Interior Department announced increased imports might be used as a weapon to force a rollback of a gasoline price hike....Johnny Mitchell, president of the Jade Oil Co. of Houston and Los Angeles, expressed regrets, but said the real problems of independent producers "can be traced down to our own President Johnson." Mitchell said Johnson, as a senator, failed when faced with an opportunity to have good import controls spelled into law. He said the Johnson administration now is cutting loopholes in the controls that became mandatory in 1959. "The attitude of our President has not swerved one inch from the pattern that the independent segment is no longer necessary and of concern to him or the nation," he said. Mitchell charged that the nation has been dependent upon foreign oil the past five years and no longer is in position oilwise to sustain a major war."

While the timing and content of this article could have little relation to the Kennedy assassination, if Kennedy was killed by right-wing oilmen (as Johnson purportedly told his mistress) and LBJ knew it, Mitchell's comments could be interpreted as a veiled threat--"Look, we put you in office and now we want a piece of the Vietnam War pie." If LBJ saw this as a threat, moreover, and was aware of Mitchell's ties to Maheu, it would help explain the SS tails on Mitchell and my father. The more I look into the Galveston connection, the curiouser and curioser it gets...

Edited October 26, 2006 by Pat Speer

[James Richards]

Pat,

I think one very relevant connection here is the possibilty that Shearn Moody Jr. was a source of finance for Robert Emmett Johnson.

Moody below.

James

[Robert Howard]

Pat,

I think one very relevant connection here is the possibilty that Shearn Moody Jr. was a source of finance for Robert Emmett Johnson.

Moody below.

James

I believe Lee Forman had a thread about Moody I am about to leave, or, I would search it; maybe he will see this

[Lee Forman]

Pat,

I think one very relevant connection here is the possibilty that Shearn Moody Jr. was a source of finance for Robert Emmett Johnson.

Moody below.

James

I believe Lee Forman had a thread about Moody I am about to leave, or, I would search it; maybe he will see this

Hi Robert.

Here's a link.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...39&hl=moody

Good stuff Pat.

- lee

[Mark Stapleton]

Any discussion concerning a Galveston connection should also include Jack Ruby's call from the Carousel to Breck Wall in Galveston at 11.44pm on Saturday 23 Nov, 1963.

Wall and an associate had a musical act and left Dallas earlier that day, arriving in Galveston at 11pm. Ferrie arrived in Galveston the same day.

It's possible that Ferrie's arrival was connected with Ruby's call. I don't know where Breck Wall fits in but I feel a tweak of suspicion. However, after reading that thread on Moody which Lee posted maybe they were all rushing to Galveston to attend one of 'those' parties--not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Lee Forman]

Any discussion concerning a Galveston connection should also include Jack Ruby's call from the Carousel to Breck Wall in Galveston at 11.44pm on Saturday 23 Nov, 1963.

Wall and an associate had a musical act and left Dallas earlier that day, arriving in Galveston at 11pm. Ferrie arrived in Galveston the same day.

It's possible that Ferrie's arrival was connected with Ruby's call. I don't know where Breck Wall fits in but I feel a tweak of suspicion. However, after reading that thread on Moody which Lee posted maybe they were all rushing to Galveston to attend one of 'those' parties--not that there's anything wrong with that.

Then, there is of course the idea that a former dance girl of Ruby's named Youngblood, aka Cheramie, was accompanying two operatives up to Galveston to pick-up a shipment of heroin that was coming in to partly finance the Corsican hitters brought to the DP party.

On the Moody parties - the main question I still have is who provided the kids - where did they come from? Ruby? A connection through Galveston?

- lee

Edited October 26, 2006 by Lee Forman

[Pat Speer]

Douglas Caddy has written that he was hired by the Moody family of Galveston to represent Billie Sol Estes. Billie Sol in turn implicated LBJ in the assassination. This was shortly after the HSCA implicated Marcello and Trafficante in the assassination. After reading this from Caddy, I wondered if perhaps the whole Estes affair was not designed to throw the hound dogs off the trail. I knew that the Moody family was quite powerful in Galveston and that the Maceo family, also from Galveston, ran a criminal gambling empire that included Dallas, had ties to Jack Ruby, and, more importantly, had ties to Lansky, Marcello, and Trafficante. But this was all conjecture..

While reading Sally Denton and Roger Morris' The Money and the Power, however, I came across their assertion that the Moodys were connected to the Maceo family, and that the Moodys, even after the Maceo brothers died, continued on in the gambling trade, through an insurance company with massive investments in various Vegas hotels. Many of these hotels had ties to Lansky as well.

Another piece of the puzzle comes from the realization that Galveston oilmen Johnny Mitchell (and his still-living billionaire brother George) were close friends with the Maceo brothers. So who is Johnny Mitchell, you might ask? Johnny Mitchell was my dad's boss at Jade Oil when I was a kid. I met him a number of times. He'd hand you a silver dollar and wink at you. Anyhow, when this really gets interesting, at least for me, is when you throw in that Mitchell was, according to Robert Maheu's memoirs, a close friend of Maheu's. He is in fact pretty much the only non-intelligence agent, non-lawyer, non-mobster, non-Hughes employee, in Maheu's book. Making it even more intriguing is that Maheu's wife purportedly met Mitchell and his wife in Florida, Trafficante's stomping ground.

While all this probably means nothing, there is this additional fact. My mom has been telling the story for years that when LBJ came to Los Angeles in 67 or 68 to stay at the Century Plaza Hotel, the Secret Service tailed Mitchell and my father. Jade Oil's Century City offices were right down the street and Mitchell was purportedly placed on a watch list.. She said LBJ hated Mitchell from way back. I never believed her until recently. If one considers that it was around this time that LBJ read the IG report on the hits on Castro, and that, as a result, LBJ would have reason to suspect Maheu's and Rosselli's involvement in Kennedy's death, it makes sense that he would want the SS to keep close tabs on Maheu's friends, particularly oilmen with mob ties and with whom he had had a long-term feud.

I recently uncovered this AP article from May 22, 1967. This was shortly after word had leaked about the Castro hits. This may have been around the time LBJ visited Los Angeles...(I still haven't placed an exact day to the visit.) Anyhow, the article reads...

"More and more oilmen are saying President Johnson has junked his 1963 decision that the Interior Department--not the White House--set national oil policy. Johnson made the decison just 18 days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It was interpreted as an obvious effort for the new President to free himself in advance of any suggestion his Texas background might influence such policy matters. The decision drew relatively little criticism until two months ago when the Interior Department announced increased imports might be used as a weapon to force a rollback of a gasoline price hike....Johnny Mitchell, president of the Jade Oil Co. of Houston and Los Angeles, expressed regrets, but said the real problems of independent producers "can be traced down to our own President Johnson." Mitchell said Johnson, as a senator, failed when faced with an opportunity to have good import controls spelled into law. He said the Johnson administration now is cutting loopholes in the controls that became mandatory in 1959. "The attitude of our President has not swerved one inch from the pattern that the independent segment is no longer necessary and of concern to him or the nation," he said. Mitchell charged that the nation has been dependent upon foreign oil the past five years and no longer is in position oilwise to sustain a major war."

While the timing and content of this article could have little relation to the Kennedy assassination, if Kennedy was killed by right-wing oilmen (as Johnson purportedly told his mistress) and LBJ knew it, Mitchell's comments could be interpreted as a veiled threat--"Look, we put you in office and now we want a piece of the Vietnam War pie." If LBJ saw this as a threat, moreover, and was aware of Mitchell's ties to Maheu, it would help explain the SS tails on Mitchell and my father. The more I look into the Galveston connection, the curiouser and curioser it gets...

Hmmm.. check this out... Mitchell came down hard on Johnson on May 22, 1967. LBJ received the Inspector General's report on the CIA attempts on Castro, detailing Mitchell's best friend Maheu's involvement with the mafia, on May 23, 1967. Now consider that LBJ stayed at the Century Plaza in late June 1967, and that this drew anti-war protesters, and that a riot ensued. Now throw into this mix that Johnny Mitchell's offices were in Century City a block away and that LBJ had the SS follow Mitchell. This suggests to me that LBJ suspected Maheu and Mitchell's involvement in Kennedy's murder.