The Civil Thinker
Promoting thought in mysteries, crimes, and the issues of our time.
Thursday, February 27, 2025
Friday, November 22, 2024
The Kennedy Assassination Part IV: LBJ
Lyndon Baines Johnson was born to a struggling farmer who was involved in Texas politics. Lyndon worked his way through college by teaching English to Mexican children. He received his teaching certificate in 1930. By 1931 LBJ receives a job as a legislative secretary to a Texas Congressman. This is the beginning of Johnson's political career. It allows LBJ, much like Bobby Baker years later, to meet the right people.
Johnson wins election to Texas' tenth U.S. Congressional District in a special election in 1937 following the death of a congressman. Johnson wins election to the U.S. Senate in 1948 and became Majority Leader of the Senate in 1955. This seems like a quick rise to the top of the Senate for someone who has barely served one term. This makes me more curious about Johnson's connections.
In 1960 LBJ launches a last minute campaign to obtain the Democratic Presidential nomination. He loses to John F. Kennedy. Then, LBJ finds himself on the ticket as Kennedy's running mate. I have often wondered why LBJ would accept the position. He had much more power as Senate Majority Leader than the Vice-Presidency. I've also always wondered why Kennedy would have picked Johnson as his VP. JFK didn't care much for Johnson and RFK despised him. I've heard rumors that Johnson blackmailed his way onto the ticket. But why?
Senator Robert Kerr, who was rumored to be in business with Bobby Baker, was said to be furious with LBJ when he learned he had accepted the VP spot on the ticket. Many years later Bobby Baker would say that it was he who calmed Kerr down. Baker explained to Kerr that as VP Johnson would be a good conduit between the White House and Capitol Hill. It sounds like Baker and Johnson thought the vice-presidency would be good for business, political and otherwise. But what business ventures was LBJ involved in? What was he afraid of being revealed during the Bobby Baker investigation?
It didn't take much digging before I find another scandal that had ties to Johnson. Billie Sol Estes was a Texas businessman and friend of LBJ who came under investigation by the Department of Agriculture for running a scam to obtain federal agricultural subsidies. Henry Marshall was assigned to the investigation.
On January 17, 1961 Marshall met with Estes' attorney, John P. Dennison. Marshall told Dennison that he was certain Estes was involved in a scheme to buy cotton allotments and he would likely be prosecuted. A week later Estes' business associate, A.B. Foster, contacts Lyndon Johnson's office to talk about the problems that Henry Marshall was causing and see if there was anything to be done about it. Shortly afterwards Marshall is offered a promotion. Marshall sees it as a bribe and refuses the promotion.
On June 3, 1961 Henry Marshall was found dead beside his truck on his farm in Texas. His rifle was next to his body. Marshall had been shot five times with his own rifle. Strangely, Marshall's death is ruled a suicide. How does someone shoot themselves five times? Marshall's family doesn't buy the suicide and want the death investigated. Texas Ranger Clint Peoples begins investigating Marshall's death and is certain Marshall was murdered. Peoples continues investigating Marshall's death for years, even into retirement.
In March 1962 Billie Sol Estes is indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges related to the cotton allotment scheme. On April 4, 1962 Estes's accountant, George Krutilek, was found dead in his car. Krutilek's death was also ruled a suicide despite a large bruise on his head. Estes was sentenced to twenty-four-years in prison. In 1979 Clint Peoples interviewed Estes in prison about the death of Henry Marshall. Estes promised to tell all that he knew about Marshall's death after he was released from prison.
Billie Sol Estes was released from prison in December 1983. Three months later he testified before a grand jury in Robertson County Texas. Estes told the grand jury that Marshall was murdered by a man named Mac Wallace on the orders of Lyndon Johnson after Marshall refused the bribe. Estes said Wallace was also responsible for the death of George Krutilek. Estes said Johnson was paranoid of Marshall uncovering his involvement in the corruption.
Was Lyndon Johnson really capable of committing murder to protect himself from scandal, from prison time? The grand jury believed it enough to change Henry Marshall's death certificate. I keep digging into Johnson. I want to find out who Mac Wallace is and what connection he has to Johnson.
I learn that Mac Wallace, a Texan and former Marine, was introduced to LBJ sometime in 1950. Johnson reportedly helped Wallace obtain a job as an economist with the Department of Agriculture. On October 22, 1951 Wallace was arrested and charged with the murder of golf clubhouse manager John Kinser. One story has Kinser in a relationship with Wallace's estranged wife. Another story has both Kinser and Wallace in a relationship with LBJ's sister, Josefa Johnson. Wallace is represented by Johnson's attorney, John Cofer. In February 1952 Wallace was found guilty of murder. However, the judge sentenced Wallace to a five year suspended sentence and set him free. I can't help but wonder if Johnson used his influence to set Wallace free.
By the time Lyndon Johnson died in 1973 he had amassed a fortune valued between $15 and $20 million. How did someone born with nothing and who worked in public service their whole life end up with so much money? I have no trouble believing the allegations of corruption against Johnson. By 1963 years of wheeling and dealing and abuse of government power was catching up to Johnson. Between the Billie Sol Estes scandal and the Bobby Baker scandal Johnson must have felt like the walls were closing in on him. If all his dirty laundry were aired he would spend the rest of his days in prison and he would likely take others down with him.
As Attorney General, Robert Kennedy would have had eyes on all of these investigations. Johson was a liability to the administration by 1963. The rumors that Kennedy was going to replace Johnson were probably true. But Johnson doesn't strike me as the type of man to walk away quietly from such a lucrative political career. Johnson was basically a bully with a charming Texas accent who was willing to bribe, blackmail, and possibly kill to get what he wanted and protect himself.
I think Johnson blackmailed his way onto the ticket in 1960 and I think he attempted to use blackmail to keep his job in 1963. I believe Bobby Baker helped him do this. Baker was known for providing call girls for his political friends. I think he provided this service to Kennedy and used the occasion to obtain compromising photos of JFK with an East German woman living in Washington named Ellen Romich. Always his brother's protector, RFK sprung into action. He had the woman deported back to East Germany. He used private untraceable funds to pay the woman off, which is probably why Grant Stockdale was delivering $50,000 in the summer of 1963. RFK struck an unpleasant deal with J. Edgar Hoover to get the compromising evidence from Baker in exchange RFK allowed Hoover to wiretap Martin Luther King.
The Kennedy brothers were determined to get rid of Johnson. RFK began leaking information about the Bobby Baker scandal to reporters privately and behind the scenes was pushing for the Senate investigation of Baker to put heat on Johnson. RFK always denied doing this, but it's not like he could admit to it.
Johnson would certainly have been feeling the heat. It wasn't just the threat of losing his career, or of going to prison, but also that he had to answer to some pretty powerful people. Johnson's career had been bankrolled by wealthy Texas oilmen and defense contractors. If Johnson was exposed by these investigations, they all would be.
Controlling these investigations was the most important thing to Johnson. It had been difficult for him to do this as VP and would be impossible in the private sector. LBJ was losing his grip. I think he made the decision to take the life of John F. Kennedy in order to save his own. Once the plan was put in motion there was no going back.
The Kennedy Assassination Part III: The Bobby Baker Scandal
Bobby Baker first arrived in Washington D.C. as a fourteen-year-old page boy from South Carolina in 1943. Lyndon Johnson of Texas took a liking to Baker and took him under his wing. When Johnson became Majority Leader in the Senate in 1955 he appointed Baker Secretary to the Majority. The two became very close, Baker even named his child after LBJ. Baker earned the nickname "Little Lyndon" around Capitol Hill.
After Johnson became Vice-President in 1961 Baker remained at his post in the Senate. In early 1963 Baker's name is mentioned on an FBI wiretap of a Las Vegas mob figure's office. Because of Baker's connection to powerful politicians, the information is on the radar of Robert F. Kennedy at the Justice Department. The Justice Department is more interested in the mob figures on the wiretap than they are Baker. It appears they put Baker on the back burner.
However, later in 1963, a lawsuit is filed against Baker's vending machine company, Serve-U, that is eerily similar to the lawsuit filed against Grant Stockdale's company. The lawsuit led to an investigation by Republican Senators. Everyone seemed to be asking how Baker was living like a millionaire on a $20,000 a year salary.
Under increasing pressure Baker resigned his post in the Senate in the fall of 1963. The investigation around him heated up. The Senators wanted to know how many of Baker's political friends were involved in his corrupt business dealings. Given his close relationship to Vice-President Lyndon Johnson, everyone was curious if Johnson was involved in any of the corruption.
On November 22, 1963, day Kennedy was assassinated, a man named Don B. Reynolds was testifying before Senate investigators about a pay for play scheme involving Baker and Vice-President Lyndon Johnson. Reynolds told investigators that he was an acquaintance of Baker and sometime in 1957 Baker approached Reynolds about securing a life insurance policy for Lyndon Johnson. Johnson had trouble finding a policy after suffering a heart attack. Reynolds secures a policy for Johnson. Reynold's said that Johnson demanded kickbacks for giving Reynolds the business. He said he bought Johnson an expensive stereo system and agreed to buy ad time on Johnson's radio station. Reynold's tells investigators that Baker sent numerous customers to him for their insurance needs and Baker expected a piece of the commission. As his testimony continues Reynolds tells of seeing a briefcase full of cash in Baker's possession. Baker allegedly told Reynolds that it was a $100,000 payoff for Johnson's role in securing the Fort Worth TFX contract. Reynolds told about Matthew H McCloskey, ironically the man who succeeded Grant Stockdale as Ambassador to Ireland, giving Baker $25,000 for help in obtaining the contract to build a stadium in Washington.
Reynolds testimony came to an abrupt end when word of the assassination reached the Senate. LBJ was now President. On January 10, 1964 the new President called his friend, Senator George Smathers, and asked him to do what he could to stop Reynold's testimony from being released. It doesn't escape me that Smathers was also good friends with Grant Stockdale. I also find it interesting that Reynolds refused to say anything else to the investigators about LBJ once he became President. Reynold's nephew has written a book in which he says his uncle was threatened and even chose to live outside the country for a while. Even The New York Times reported that Reynolds had become the victim of a smear campaign by someone within the Johnson White House .
Many years later, after his release from prison, Bobby Baker confirmed the accuracy of Reynold's testimony. I'm more interested in learning what Reynolds didn't say about Johnson. Was he involved in criminal activities? Did he, like Baker, have ties to the mob?
At the end of the day Bobby Baker was convicted of tax evasion and served eighteen months in prison. But the scandal attached to his name has raised many questions. Questions about the death of Grant Stockdale. Questions about the death of Baker's secretary and mistress, Nancy Carol Tyler. But, above all, questions about Lyndon B. Johnson. I didn't know if any of it had anything to do with the murder of John F. Kennedy or not, but I wanted to find out.
I'm quickly reminded of the rumor, a rumor that appeared on the front page of The Dallas Morning News on the day of the assassination, that Kennedy intended to drop Johnson from the ticket. Is the rumor true? Did Kennedy learn something about LBJ that made him want to replace him as VP? Afterall, LBJ was effectively in charge of Kennedy's murder investigation with the creation of the Warren Commission, so I think these are important questions to ask. It's time to dig deep into the life of Lyndon B. Johnson.
The Kennedy Assassination Part II: The Death of Grant Stockdale
Grant Stockdale first met John F. Kennedy in the late 1940's while working as an administrative assistant to Florida Congressman George Smathers. Stockdale continued his involvement in Democratic politics in Florida and was elected to the Florida State House in 1948. In addition to politics, Stockdale was also a businessman.
Stockdale worked diligently on the Kennedy campaign in 1960. After his election Kennedy rewarded Stockdale by appointing him to be Ambassador to Ireland. Stockdale's appointment led to him being publicly scrutinized. Questions were asked about Stockdale being given a $5,000 interest free loan from a Miami businessman who needed Stockdale's assistance in obtaining a building permit. Kennedy demanded that Stockdale immediately pay the money back. But allegations against Stockdale persisted.
In the spring of 1961 Stockdale and his business partners are sued in court. Stockdale was part owner of a vending machine business. The lawsuit accused Stockdale and his partners of using undue influence to obtain government contracts for profit. Stockdale immediately sold the company in hopes of avoiding a scandal.
Stockdale resigned as Ambassador to Ireland in July 1962. He returned to private business in Florida. Stockdale remained friendly with Kennedy after his resignation, joining him in January of 1963 at the Orange Bowl.
On December 2, 1963, ten days after the assassination, Grant Stockdale plunged to his death in Miami. Stockdale's death was ruled a suicide. Senator George Smathers said Stockdale had been depressed over the assassination.
I probably wouldn't have given a second thought to the ex-Ambassador or his unfortunate death if it were not for the vending machine scandal that he was involved in. It reminded me of the Bobby Baker scandal, which also revolved around vending machines and government contracts among other things. I find it more interesting to learn that Stockdale's business partner, Eugene A. Hancock, was the President of Bobby Baker's vending company. Was Stockdale about to be implicated in the Baker scandal? Was this what led to his suicide?
As I dig deeper, however, I begin to question if Stockdale's death was actually a suicide. Those who spoke with Stockdale in the days before his death say he was distraught, but also afraid of someone. Stockdale's family said he thought he was being followed. Then, shortly after Stockdale's death his home is broken into. Mrs. Stockdale calls the police. Nothing appears to have been taken, but an odd thing is discovered in the kitchen. A machete and several knives were neatly arranged on the kitchen counter. No one knew where they came from. The police had no more left the house when the phone rang. The voice on the other end of the line says, "I hear you had some trouble tonight". Mrs. Stockdale demanded to know who the caller was to which he replied, "I'm going to get your daughter" before hanging up. A local reporter said Stockdale asked for a meeting with him just before his death but the meeting hadn't taken place yet. A lawyer friend said Stockdale also requested a meeting, but again the meeting hadn't taken place yet.
There's a lot of smoke surrounding the business dealings and death of Grant Stockdale, but is there a fire there? I heard a compelling story about Stockdale being asked to deliver $50,000 in untraceable cash in a briefcase to Kennedy in the summer of 1963. What was that about? Was Stockdale involved in Kennedy's murder? Did he have information on it? Was he involved in the Bobby Baker scandal? What, if anything did the Bobby Baker scandal have to do with the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
I'm uncertain if Stockdale's death was in any way connected to Kennedy's assassination, but it again points me in the direction of the Bobby Baker scandal that was rocking Washington in the weeks before Kennedy's murder. So, who is Bobby Baker and what can of worms was he threatening to open in 1963?
The Kennedy Assassination Part I: Was It A Conspiracy?
One of the most mysterious and controversial crimes in history is the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Twenty-four-year-old ex-Marine Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and charged with the assassination, but Oswald himself was shot and killed while in police custody two days later, unleashing a host of conspiracy theories and alternative suspects. A 2023 survey found that more than half of American adults do not believe Oswald's guilt. Solving the crime has become a hobby to thousands of citizen sleuths around the world.
I was first introduced to the assassination mystery as a nine-year-old child watching an episode of 48 Hours in the fall of 1988. I was instantly hooked. From that day forward I was determined to solve the crime. I have finally reached a conclusion.
One of the first things I did was to go through the list of conspiracy theories and debunk them one at a time. I also went through the list of possible suspects that had been put forward over the years. Who had the motive, means, and opportunity to kill Kennedy? Was it Oswald or was it someone else? I first needed to determine if there was a conspiracy or not.
There are witnesses who heard gunfire or saw gunpowder in the air near a grassy area in front of Kennedy's car. The government says Oswald fired at Kennedy from the 6th floor window of a building behind Kennedy's car. There is other circumstantial evidence to suggest a conspiracy, but for me it comes down to individuals having knowledge of and speaking about the murder before it took place. On November 9, 1963 a Miami police informant recorded a conversation between himself and a right wing radical named Joseph Milteer. In the conversation Milteer tells the informant that the best way to get Kennedy was with a rifle from an office building. Milteer says a plan is in the works and someone would be picked up for the murder just to throw the public off. How would Milteer know that a plan is in the works?
The second instance of foreknowledge of the murder came on the night of November 20, 1963. A woman is found on the side of the road in Louisiana badly beaten and under the influence of something. She tells the police that the two men she was traveling with, the same men who beat her and threw her out of the car, were on their way to Texas to kill Kennedy. She repeated this story to nurses at the hospital. Because the woman was obviously under the influence no one took her warning seriously. How did the woman know Kennedy was about to be killed in Texas? Who were the men she was traveling with?
These two individuals knowing about the crime before it happened makes me certain there was some sort of a conspiracy to kill John F. Kennedy. Who were the conspirators? Why was Kennedy killed? Who benefited the most? And more importantly who had the power, not only to orchestrate a conspiracy, but to cover it up and keep the world guessing for more than half a century?
Most of the top suspects that conspiracy theorists have put forward over the years can be eliminated pretty quickly. The mob couldn't have done it, the Russians couldn't have done it, the Cubans couldn't have done it, the CIA couldn't have done it, and aliens from outer space didn't do it. None of those groups had the power to cover up the crime. That is a key factor to this investigation. Plenty of sinister people might have wanted Kennedy dead, but very few of them had the power to actually kill him.
I emersed myself into Kennedys world in 1963, looking for anything that might stand out. I come across two headlines that spark my interest. The first was the Bobby Baker scandal. This scandal, involving a longtime Senate employee, had the potential to bring down a lot of powerful politicians. Was Kennedy one of them? Did Kennedy's murder have anything to do with the scandal? I wasn't sure.
The second headline I noticed was a rumor that Kennedy intended to drop Lyndon Johnson from the 1964 re-election campaign. If true, this is significant. Succeeding Kennedy as President would have given Johnson the power to cover up the crime. But, is being fired a reason to kill? Was the rumor even true?
I knew I needed to learn more about the Bobby Baker scandal and Lyndon Johnson. I was expecting to pretty quickly be able to cross Johnson off my suspect list. But, the more I learned about Johnson and the Bobby Baker scandal the more this case began to unravel.
The Kennedy assassination is a complex multi-pronged crime. This is the story, as compartmentalized as possible, of how I concluded my thirty six year investigation. I finally know, beyond any doubt in my mind, who killed John F. Kennedy, who orchestrated the murder, who covered it up, and why it was so important for our government to hide the truth from us. This is that story and all of the stories that live with in it.
Friday, February 2, 2024
The Mystery Of Who Put Bella In The Wych Elm
On April 18, 1943, in the middle of World War II, four boys out hunting for bird eggs in Birmingham, England discovered a human skeleton inside the trunk of a hollowed out wych elm tree. Police were able to uncover an almost complete skeleton along with a gold ring and a few fragments of clothing. Forensic analysis estimated the body was female, around thirty-five-years-old, and had been dead for approximately eighteen months. There was no identification. Police checked with local dentists because the Jane Doe had extensive dental work done, but they were not able to find any matches. The Birmingham police had a mysterious Jane Doe cold case on their hands.
The case got even more mysterious when in the middle of the night someone painted a graffiti message on a wall in Birmingham that read: "Who put Bella down the wych elm?" Since 1943 the mysterious message has appeared several times around the Birmingham area. Because of this strange message police and the public assumed the Jane Doe was named Bella. But who was she? Who killed her? And who was leaving the graffiti messages about her?
In the early 1950's a local journalist wrote several articles about "Bella" hoping to spur someone into coming forward who could unlock the mystery. Soon a letter arrived at the newspaper. It was written by a woman who called herself "Anna". She said the victim was Dutch and had arrived illegally in England around 1941. The letter said the person responsible for killing "Bella" was insane and had since died. Authorities encouraged "Anna" to come forward. The journalist later claimed that "Anna" was actually a woman called Una Hainesworth. The journalist claims he was present when police interviewed Una. The journalist claims Una told them her husband, Jack Mossop, was responsible for killing "Bella" and putting her in the wych elm. Mossop went insane after the killing and died in a mental hospital. Not everyone was convinced that Una was telling the truth. The case remained open, so police must not have taken her story too seriously either.
There are many who believe "Bella" was a part of a German spy ring operating in Birmingham at that time. It was World War II and there were several munitions' factories in the area that German spies were reportedly interested in. One spy had allegedly been apprehended near Birmingham, so this theory seemed plausible to a lot of people. They speculate this is why no one reported her missing or claimed her remains. There are others who think the death of "Bella" was the work of witchcraft. Putting a body in a tree trunk was allegedly a common practice in witchcraft.
Who wrote the mysterious graffiti messages? Was it "Bella's" killer? Was it someone who knew her and knew what happened to her but couldn't come forward? With the mystery still lingering in 2014 researchers at Queen Mary University in London used a probabilistic technique called a Bayesian Network to attempt to shed new light on the decades old case. They concluded there was a 99% likelihood that her death was criminal and a 97% likelihood that "Bella" was not British. They found a 33% chance that Jack Mossop killed her and a 25% chance that "Bella" was a spy. In 2018 new technology helped produce a photograph of "Bella", finally giving her a face to go with the name. The image was released hoping someone would come forward who might have known her. As of this writing no one has claimed her. The mystery of who put Bella in the wych elm remains.
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Accident Or Assassination: The Death Of Dag Hammarskjold
Shortly after midnight on September 18, 1961 a plane carrying the Secretary General for the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold, and fourteen others crashed in a forest in Northern Rhodesia. An investigation found pilot error to be the likely cause of the crash. But rumors of foul play began immediately. So, was it a tragic accident? Or did someone want Dag Hammarskjold dead?
Hammarskjold was the son of Sweden's former Prime Minister and began his diplomatic career at a young age. He first joined the United Nations in 1949 as a delegate from Sweden. In 1953 he was elected Secretary General of the U.N. Hammarskjold was known for his success in diplomacy. He successfully negotiated the release of U.S. soldiers being held captive by China at the end of the Korean War.
At the time of the crash Hammarskjold was deeply involved in the conflict in Africa involving Belgium mining companies and Soviet backed Republic of the Congo. The Republic of the Congo had recently become an independent nation. Shortly after their independence was declared, the mineral rich southern province of the Congo known as Katanga seceded from the country, causing a violent conflict. Katanga separatists were being backed by Belgium who wanted rights to the valuable minerals. To fight the separatists, Congo's first elected President, Patrice Lumumba, sought help from the Soviet Union. Lumumba was assassinated in early 1961. It was rumored that Belgium and the American CIA were behind the assassination.
Hammarskjold was reportedly on his way to a meeting with Katanga leaders in hopes of negotiating a cease fire when his plane went down. Hammarskjold's body was reportedly not burned like the other bodies on the plane. This led some to question if an already dead Hammarskjold was placed in the wreckage. Another suspicious finding was an ace of spade playing card found in the collar of Hammarskjold's shirt. What was it doing there? Some thought this could be a calling card from an assassin. Even former American President Harry Truman added fuel to the fire of suspicion when two days after the crashed he commented," he was on the point of getting something done when they killed him." Locals on the ground reported seeing fire in the sky, leading some to think the plane was shot out of the sky. A 1962 U.N. investigation was inconclusive but could not rule out the possibility of sabotage or attack.
Most people think Hammarskjold was killed because he would have brought about peace in the Congo and conflict was so much more profitable. As far as who the guilty party could be, the finger has been pointed at both sides. It could have been the Soviet backed Congo, or it could have been the Katanga separatists backed by Belgium and the west. Murder was certainly not off the table because Patrice Lumumba had already been assassinated months earlier. A 2018 investigation of the crash failed to produce a definitive conclusion but stated, "it appears plausible that an external attack or threat may have been a cause of the crash."
What do you think? Was the plane crash nothing more than a tragic accident? Or was Dag Hammarskjold assassinated?