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Ep 76: LBJ (Part 7)

  • Matt Crumpton
  • Aug 5
  • 14 min read

The Texas oil boom of the early 20th century created fortunes for a few enterprising individuals, who would go on to become powerful figures in the business world.[1] Some of those men also exercised their influence in the political realm. And since we’re talking about Texas, the wealthiest oil men all knew Lyndon Johnson. In this episode, we’ll explore the careers and relationships of H.L. Hunt, D.H. Byrd, Sid Richardson, and Clint Murchison.

 

Did these Texas oil tycoons have a reason to want to get rid of President Kennedy? And, more importantly, if they did want JFK out of office, did they take any actions to accomplish that objective?

 

Oil Depletion Allowance

 

In the early 1960s, half of the oil reserves in the United States were in Texas. The six companies that controlled 80% of that oil benefitted from a special provision in the tax code called the Oil Depletion Allowance.[2] Enacted in 1916, the depletion allowance allowed oil companies to retain a percentage of their oil income, tax-free. In 1963, that number was 27 and a half percent.[3] The purpose of the depletion allowance was to provide an incentive for wealthy entrepreneurs to invest in oil exploration.[4] 

 

During the 1960 Presidential Election, Kennedy wrote a letter to Gerald Mann, the director of the Kennedy Johnson campaign in Texas, in which Kennedy said that he favored a thorough study into the resource requirements of the United States before making a decision on the future of the oil depletion allowance.[5]

 

But, in 1963, President Kennedy apparently had obtained the information he was looking for, and began to advocate for a reduction of the oil depletion allowance, as noted by the New York Times in a January 25th, 1963 article.[6] Specifically, as part of a comprehensive tax bill, Kennedy wanted to reduce the amount of the oil depletion allowance for producers who made more than $5 Million dollars per year.[7] It is not clear whether he sought to remove the entire allowance or just reduce it.

 

This threatened removal or reduction of the oil depletion allowance was viewed by the Texas oil industry as a direct attack. The oil depletion allowance resulted in an additional $280 million in annual profits being paid to Texas oil millionaires instead of the federal government.[8]

 

Suite 8F Group

 

We’ve spent some time over these last few episodes covering Lyndon Johnson’s lucrative interactions with the private sector during his ascent to power. A central hub of those connections was the Suite 8F Group, an informal network of politically connected wealthy Texas businessmen who met on a recurring basis in Herman’s Brown’s suite at the Lamar Hotel: Suite 8F. Herman Brown was the co-founder of Brown and Root, one of Lyndon Johnson’s earliest backers who saw exponential growth due to government contracts that Johnson helped Brown and Root to secure. For about thirty years, Brown lived in Austin, but would commute to Houston and stay overnight a few nights each week in this same hotel room.[9]

 

There is not much known about the informal network of the Suite 8F Group, aside from the fact that the most powerful men in Texas were involved in it, it was very private, and the group would often work together to back certain political candidates. The group backed the careers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sam Rayburn, and Lyndon Johnson. [10]  Reported members of the clique included Johnson and Rayburn, as well as the Brown Brothers, James Elkins (founder of international law firm, Vinson & Elkins), William Hobby (who Hobby Airport is named after), Ed Clark (LBJ’s lawyer), H.L. Hunt, Clint Murchison, John Connally, and Sid Richardson.[11]

 

Standing alone, the Suite 8F Group’s informal membership list doesn’t prove anything. Still, it shows that all of these people were in the same circles, and many times, were pursuing the same goals – like making sure that the oil depletion allowance stayed in place.  

 

H.L. Hunt

 

Let’s get to the big time Texas oil men that were mentioned at the top of the show. First, we turn to Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, who went by the initials H.L. Hunt hit it big in the 1930s in the East Texas Oil Fields and then became the primary oil supplier for the Allies during World War II.[12] By the mid 1950s, Hunt was one of the wealthiest men in the world. When he died, he was worth the equivalent of about $15 Billion Dollars in today’s money.[13]

 

In 1956, attorney, John Curington became H. L. Hunt’s personal assistant. His job was to do whatever Mr. Hunt asked, without asking any questions. In 2018, Curington shared his experiences working for Hunt in a book called H.L. Hunt: Motive and Opportunity. We know that Curington did work directly for H.L. Hunt, as laid out in a New York Times Article about Curington being convicted for embezzling funds from the company.[14]Curington blamed this embezzlement charge on an intra-family feud that happened after H.L. Hunt died.[15]Either way, John Curington is the real deal when it comes to H.L. Hunt.

 

In November of 1958, Hunt launched the Lifeline radio show to provide a platform for his right-wing, extreme anti-communist politics. Lifeline was a 15 minute daily program that broadcast on over 500 radio stations across the country with about 5 million listeners.[16]

 

 Curington says that General Edwin Walker would regularly come by and wait in Curington’s office until Hunt was available to talk. General Walker and Hunt moved in the same political circles and Hunt and Curington visited General Walker’s home both before and after April 10, 1963 – the day that someone fired a shot at Walker’s house. It makes sense that Hunt and Walker would be political allies. Still, it was news to me that these men were close enough that H.L. Hunt went to General Walker’s home multiple times.[17]

 

Hunt Did Not Like JFK

 

In July of 1960, shortly before the Democratic Presidential Convention, H.L. Hunt convinced his famous preacher friend to help Lyndon Johnson by attacking Senator John Kennedy. At the urging of Hunt, Dr. W.A. Criswell, one of the most famous preachers in the world, who happened to be the head of the First Baptist Church in Dallas where Hunt was a member, gave a Sunday morning speech denouncing Catholicism and John F. Kennedy. H.L. Hunt then had this political sermon mailed to 200,000 pastors across the country.[18]

 

In 1964, the World’s Fair would be held in New York City, which was a big deal. Hunt had the contract to be the amusement vendor. According to Curington, in mid-October of 1963, Robert Moses, the organizer of the World’s Fair asked Hunt to visit him in New York. During the meeting, which Curington attended, Moses terminated the contract because he said Hunt only wanted the contract to promote his Lifeline radio show. Hunt then called Lyndon Johnson for help. But, Johnson said that he could not help because there was a higher authority that made the decision. Hunt took this to mean that President Kennedy ordered Hunt’s contract to be terminated. On the airplane back to Dallas, Hunt told Curington, QUOTE “John, I’ve had about a bellyful of those Kennedy boys. They both need to go.”[19]

 

Ok, so Hunt did not care for Kennedy. But does Curington allege any actions by Hunt that could possibly show involvement in the assassination? Maybe.

 

Hunt and the Assassination

 

Sometime in 1962, Curington says that Hunt asked him to contact Dallas mob boss Joe Civello to ask him which Chicago bank his mafia friends in the Windy City would recommend. Hunt knew Civello well and would regularly meet with him at his liquor store near Love Field or at the Admiral’s Club at Love Field. Civello told Curington to set the account up at the Continental Illinois Bank. Hunt then sent a letter to the bank with a $250,000 check enclosed. Curington says that there is no reason for Hunt to have had an account in Chicago because he already had other accounts in Dallas, New York, and Switzerland. Curington doesn’t know what happened with the money after the account was set up.[20]

 

On the day of the assassination, Curington was the one who told Hunt about the shots being fired minutes after the motorcade passed the Hunt office building. Curington said that when he relayed this information, Hunt QUOTE “paid no attention to it at all.”[21]

 

Curington also makes claims in his book that, if true, would connect H.L. Hunt to Marina Oswald and to the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. At 6:30 in the morning, on Saturday, the day after the assassination, Hunt called Curington to come in to work and asked him to lock the steel door between the two connecting buildings on the seventh floor. Curington says this is the only time he ever saw this door locked. Hunt then wanted Curington to make sure no employees were in the building and to stand in the lobby downstairs to tell any incoming employees to go home.[22]

 

When Hunt arrived in the lobby at 8:30am that morning, he told Curington that there would be a woman coming into the building soon and that Curington was not to look at her or even acknowledge her presence. A few minutes later, Marina Oswald walked in the front door. She was there for about 20 minutes and then left. She came and left in a black car with US government license plates.[23]

 

Why would Hunt want to meet with Marina? Out of curiosity? Would he really be able to just summon her in a government vehicle? We have no idea what this alleged meeting is about. Curington, who is certain that it was Marina, says that he doesn’t know either. Hunt never spoke of it again and he would have been fired if he would have asked.

 

Perhaps the biggest allegation that Curington makes is that around 5:30 on the Saturday afternoon after the assassination, Hunt asked him to go to the police station to assess the security situation around Oswald.[24]Curington says he did as he was asked, and was eventually able to see Oswald being escorted by Will Fritz in handcuffs with no additional security around him. Curington relayed this information to Hunt, who then told him to call Joe Civello, the same Dallas crime boss Hunt relied on for the best bank to use in Chicago. Hunt wanted Civello to come to his home, and according to Curington, Civello did just that. He visited Hunt’s mansion at 6:00am on Sunday morning, just hours before Jack Ruby would kill Lee Harvey Oswald.[25] 

 

Curington says that Hunt did not know Jack Ruby. But, when Ruby’s car was searched, he had two copies of transcripts of H.L. Hunt’s radio show, Lifeline.[26] While Ruby was in jail, Hunt asked Curington to keep up with all of his activities and visitors in jail. Curington says that he received regular reports about Ruby and passed the information on to H.L. Hunt.[27]

 

Finally, Curington provides an interesting tidbit on the mysterious “Mr. Hunt” letter written by Oswald. He says that after the assassination, the letter showed up in their inter-office mail. When it did, they reported it to the FBI. He said that he did not know if it was a fake or if it was authentic.[28]

 

One more thing on H.L. Hunt, this from the Church Committee files, on the day before the assassination, Thursday, November 21st, both Jack Ruby and mafioso Jim Braden visited the Hunt Oil offices. Paul Rothermel, the director of Security for Hunt Oil, said that Braden was accompanied by three other men in the office.  Braden told his parole officer that he was visiting Lamar Hunt about oil business. The Warren Commission concluded that Jack Ruby was at the office because he drove a woman friend of his there to help her get employment, an interesting conclusion given that Lamar Hunt’s name was found in Jack Ruby’s notebook.[29]

 

DH Byrd

 

Let’s move on to the next Texas Oil millionaire we’ll be covering: David Harold Byrd. When Byrd first began in the oil business, he started as a geological scout – initially without much success. The first 56 wells that he drilled produced no oil, garnering DH Byrd the nickname of Dry Hole Byrd. Eventually, Byrd’s persistence paid off and when he was 28 years old, he drilled two productive wells and reinvested the money to drill for more wells. Those other wells would make DH Byrd a millionaire and allow him to diversify his holdings.[30]

 

In the 1930s, when he began to attain his wealth, Byrd became interested in aviation. This led to him co-founding the Civil Air Patrol in 1941, shortly after Japan attacked the US Navy at Pearl Harbor. The purpose of the CAP was to use civilian aircraft to supplement military aircraft. (This was before the Air Force was officially chartered.)[31] Yes, this is the same Civil Air Patrol that David Ferrie and Lee Harvey Oswald were in. And Byrd was the commander of the Texas and Louisiana division of CAP from 1948 to 1953 – which overlaps with the time David Ferrie was in the CAP.[32] But, there is no evidence that Byrd had direct contact with Ferrie or Oswald.

 

Byrd’s love of flying was not just a hobby. He wanted to get involved in the aircraft business. In the 1950s, Byrd co-founded TEMCO Aircraft. As we previously covered, Mac Wallace’s new job after he was con victed of murder was working for DH Byrd’s TEMCO. Byrd also got a job at TEMCO for Raymond Fehmer, the father of Lyndon Johnson’s personal secretary, Marie Fehmer.[33]

 

Byrd was a financial backer of Lyndon Johnson and had a close personal relationship with him. There are numerous thank you notes and kind letters back and forth from Johnson to Byrd over the years. However, Johnson did not invite Byrd to the 1964 presidential inauguration, which Byrd did not appreciate, as noted in a letter he wrote to Johnson on January 19, 1964.[34]

 

In 1939, DH Byrd purchased the Texas School Book Depository Building at an auction. Only about a year before President Kennedy’s assassination, the Texas School Book Depository Company became the main tenant of the building.[35] A few weeks after the assassination, Byrd had the window frame from which Lee Harvey Oswald was said to have fired a shot removed. Byrd’s son said that the reason the window frame was removed was to keep it preserved because vandals were destroying it.[36] But, critics began to wonder about Byrd’s true intentions when he hung the window like a trophy in his banquet room.[37]

 

In November of 1963 – before the assassination – DH Byrd (founder of TEMCO) and James Ling (founder of Ling Electronics) used a shell company to buy 132,000 shares of LTV stock. The Byrds previously owned about 35,000 shares. The purchases happened at a time when the LTV stock price was sliding because of threatened antitrust litigation. By 1967, the 132,000 shares that Byrd and Ling bought in November of 1963 for $16 each were worth $169 each.[38]

 

Two months after President Kennedy was killed allegedly from the window of Byrd’s building, Byrd’s company, LTV, was awarded a contract to build a jet bomber from Johnson’s 1965 budget before it was even approved by Congress.[39] The fact that such a massive volume of stock was purchased at this time seems to point to potential foreknowledge by Byrd and Ling. Either that, or they just got super lucky.  

 

On the day of the assassination, Byrd was reportedly on an African safari. However, researchers Russ Baker and Rob Smith have analyzed Byrd’s African safari story with some surprising results. First, the photos taken from the safari that are labeled D.H. Byrd do not actually show D.H. Byrd. Second, Byrd was known to personally take photos with any big game that he killed. But, on this safari, there is a photo of an elephant that was said to be shot by D.H. Byrd, with two hunting guides standing next to the elephant – not Byrd. Also, Byrd said that he went on the trip with a Dr. Davidson, but according to tour guides, there was no one named Davidson there. Not to mention that the temperature in Mozambique, where Byrd said he traveled, reached extreme heights in November.[40] I don’t know for sure if D.H. Byrd made up the safari story, but if he did, that obviously begs the question - why?[41]

 

Sid Richardson

 

Another wealthy Texas Oil Tycoon was Sid Richardson. While Richardson died in 1959, before President Kennedy was elected to office, he was still an important player. Richardson befriended Elliott Roosevelt, the son of President Franklin Roosevelt, in 1933. A few years later, President Roosevelt spent a weekend with Richardson and his business partner, Clint Murchison, fishing off of Matagorda Island, Texas. Richardson was also an early and major financial backer of General Dwight Eisenhower’s successful bids for the White House.[42]

 

Richardson is perhaps most noteable for co-owning the Del Charro Hotel in La Jolla, California with Clint Murchison. As we discussed when we covered J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director vacationed at Del Charro every year. While everyone viewed Hoover as an extremely powerful man, Richardson once told Hoover in front of others at a party QUOTE “Edgar, Get your ass over here and get me some more chili!” according to author Bryan Burrough.[43]

 

Richardson’s top aide was Lyndon Johnson acolyte, John Connally, who spent nine years working for Richardson. Johnson is the one who introduced Connally to Richardson, which led to Connally being Richardson’s attorney, lobbyist, and the co-executor of Richardson’s estate.[44] Richardson also knew George de Mohrenschildt from the oil industry, according to an Army Intelligence report.[45]

 

Clint Murchison

 

Another major Texas Oil player was Clint Murchison. In addition to owning the Del Charro Hotel with Sid Richardson and sharing all of the same connections with J. Edgar Hoover and the mafia, Murchison, like H.L. Hunt, was one of the earliest developers of the East Texas Oil Field. He later diversified his wealth into life insurance, banks, railroads, manufacturing, and hospitality businesses, working with his son, Clint, Jr.[46]

 

Murchison was a political ally of Lyndon Johnson since the late 1930s and began frequently corresponding with Johnson in 1945. He was staunchly anti-communist in his political views. Murchison, as well as Richardson, were both supporters of Senator Joseph McCarthy, until McCarthy fell out of favor with them.[47] [48]

 

There are two other very important allegations related to the Murchison family and the Kennedy Assassination. First, according to attorney Daniel Sheehan, Clint Murchison, Jr. owned a ranch in Oaxaca, Mexico. That ranch was used to train what Sheehan calls the S-Force, a group of mercenaries and Cuban exiles that was training to kill Fidel Castro using triangular fire. There is, of course, much more to this story. But, the real question is, ‘why does Danny Sheehan believe this?’ And the answer is that Sheehan was a junior associate lawyer working for F. Lee Bailey when Bailey represented Santo Trafficante in the early 70s.[49] According to Sheehan, Trafficante, himself, told Sheehan’s investigator the entire plot, including the part about the Murchison ranch.

 

The second important allegation is that there was a party at the Murchison house the night before the assassination where key figures, including LBJ, discussed the planned murder of the president. We’ll unpack that disputed story in the next episode.

 

NEXT TIME ON SOLVING JFK: We wrap up our study of Lyndon Johnson by analyzing Johnson’s time as Vice President, whether Johnson would have been invited to stay on the 1964 ticket if Kennedy lived, the alleged Murchison party, and the big question – was Lyndon Johnson involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

 


[2] Phillip Nelson, LBJ: The Mastermind of the JFK Assassination, at 144.

[4] Id.

[7] John Curington and Mitchel Whitington, H.L. Hunt: Motive & Opportunity, at 100-101.

[8] Nelson at 144.

[10] Id.

[11] Id.; Nelson at 145.

[12] Curington at 46.

[16] Curington at 98.

[17] Id. at 102-103.

[18] Id. at 86-94.

[19] Id. at 16-18.

[20] Id. at 118-119.

[21] Id. at 108.

[22] Id. at 122-123.

[23] Id. at 123-124.

[24] Id. at 111.

[25] Id. at 112.

[27] Curington at 114.

[28] Id. at 120-121.

[33] Joan Mellen, Faustian Bargains, at 111.

[34] Id. at 110.

[39] Mellen at 185.

[41] https://whowhatwhy.org/justice/jfk-assassination-60-years-later-crucial-alibi-dismantled/ (In Byrd’s 1978 autobiography, he is silent about the JFK Assassination or owning the Texas School Book Depository Building.)

[44] Jane Wolfe, The Murchisons: The Rise and Fall of a Texas Dynasty, at 195.

[47] Id.

[48] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clint_Murchison_Jr. - Clint Murchison, Jr. had a rivalry with H.L. Hunt’s son, Lamar because both men wanted to bring professional football to Dallas. When Lamar Hunt helped create the American Football League and brought the Dallas Texans to town, the competing National Football League gave Murchison, Jr. rights for a new team in Dallas – the Dallas Cowboys. Eventually, Hunt moved the Texans to Kansas City, where they became the Chiefs.

[49] Live Presentation of Daniel Sheehan at JFK Lancer Conference, November 2024.

 
 
 

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