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.