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.