LBJ: A Closer Look. A Review

                      LBJ: A CLOSER LOOK: A REVIEW

                          John Delane Williams

   LBJ: A Closer Look is both a video and a book of research materials produced by Lyle Sardie [1,2]. While there is overlap on some material each presents information relating to LBJ's involvement with the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Conjectures of LBJ's involvement have recently intensified, notably due to the determination that a previously unidentified fingerprint on a box on the sixth floor which was determined to be that of Mac Wallace [3,4], a reputed hitman whose major employer was Lyndon Johnson [5].

                     The Research Materials

                         Billy Sol Estes

     LBJ: A Closer Look, the book is a spiral bound limited edition that surprisingly has no writing by its compiler, Lyle Sardie. Five separate sections are in the research materials, which in total are mainly a collection of newspaper articles. The first section contains material on Billy Sol Estes. Included are four perfunctory letters from Johnson to Estes, presumably to show a relationship between the two. The newspaper articles chronicle Estes schemes, including his selling non-existent anhydrous ammonia tanks, and his illegally securing cotton allotments. Estes relationship to LBJ aide Clifton Carter is described. An article from the March 23, 1984 Dallas Morning News is included in its entirety [6], which implicates LBJ, Clifton Carter, Malcolm Wallace and Estes in plotting the murder of Henry Marshall, an Agricultural Department employee who was investigating Estes. A letter from Douglas Caddy [7], an attorney for Estes, to Stephen Trott, An Assitant Attorney General is included. The letter mentions 17 murders by Wallace, including JFK.     

                        Mac Wallace

     The second section contains materials on Malcolm (Mac) Wallace. The first group of articles concerns the murder of Doug Kinsler, a local golf pro who was rumored to have relationships

with Wallace's wife and also with Josefa Johnson, LBJ's sister. (Wallace was also rumored to have been involved with Josefa.) Wallace was convicted of murder with malice, but received the rather astonishing sentence of 5 years probation. Several other documents are included; one such document is a 12 page interview of Bob Long, the prosecuting attorney in the Kinser case [8]. Long contended that a lawyer for Wallace, who sat in on the first three days of the ten day trial, was a cousin of one of the jurors: "They let this guy on the jury know that he was a friend of Wallace's. That's all there was to it. Of course, he hung the jury" [9, p. 3 of 12].

                       Henry Marshall

     Several documents relate to the death of Agricultural Department Investigator, Henry Marshall. Marshall was investigating the schemes of Billy Sol Estes at the time of Marshall's death. The autopsy report stated that Wallace suffered five gunshot wounds

to the abdomen and chest, with three of the wounds being rapidly incapacitating. He also had bruises on the left side of his head and had carbon monoxide in his lungs, also an incapacitating situation [10]. Despite the implausibility of any finding but homicide, Marshall's death was officially termed a suicide, and a year later a grand jury did not overturn the earlier decision [11]. A letter by Homer Garrison, Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, went through the evidence and showed how unlikely it was that a person with a near fatal dose of carbon monoxide would then dispose of the materials used in the poisoning, sustain a serious brain injury that caused his eye to protrude, and then shoot himself five times with a bolt action .22 rifle, using only his left hand, with at least three of the shots to be quickly incapacitating [12]. Only in 1984, with the testimony of Billy Sol Estes that Marshall was killed on the orders of then Vice President Lyndon Johnson, by  Malcolm Wallace, to hide LBJ-Estes connections, was the cause of death changed to homicide [13]. A 14 page article [14] detailed the death of Marshall and the political furor surrounding his death. Also described is the way in which Wallace got away with the murder of Doug Kinser-threats were made against the families of jurors.

                     Lyndon Baines Johnson

     The section on Lyndon Johnson contains cordial correspondence between LBJ and J. Edgar Hoover. Newspaper articles include material on the infamous box #13, which through apparent irregularities helped steal the 1948 Democrat nomination for Senator for LBJ from Coke Stevenson [15, 16].  The memorandum that some claim [17, 18 for example] changed the impetus of the Vietnam war from an early withdrawal to an extended war effort, National Security Action Memorandum #273 is included [19]. Other newspaper articles include potential areas of scandal for LBJ; Bobby Baker and the TFX [20]; the Estes case [21]; and the Walter Jenkins revelations [22, 23]. Compared to the other four sections, the LBJ section is thinnest in material and substance related to the JFK assassination.

                  Miscellaneous Materials   

     The most important document in the last section is 23 pages regarding an application to submit new evidence to the Assassinations Record Review Board by Barr McClellan, a Texas attorney who gave counsel to Edward Clark, who in turn was LBJ's personal attorney. McClellan played a role in getting "Big Oil" to pay off Clark in the form of an oil well. According to McClellan's letter, Clark planned the assassination for LBJ. Clark in turn enlisted Mac Wallace to do the assassination. The application  contained six exhibits 1) the fingerprint match between  Mac Wallace and the unidentified fingerprint on  Box "A" on the sixth floor of The Texas Schoolbook Depository; 2) The 1984 Grand Jury decision to change Henry Marshall's cause of death to homicide, said to indict LBJ, Mac Wallace and Cliff Carter (all then deceased); 3) Affidavit of Clark's complicity in the assassination; 4) Clark's application for his well for his payoff; 5) the Caddy letter detailing the murders by Mac Wallace; 6) a memo reviewing Wallace's security clearances [24]. Even for someone who has pinpointed LBJ as a being a principal in the assassination [25], the material in the application by McClellan is breathtaking. The research documents taken in toto seem to help make a compelling case for complicity in JFK's assassination by Johnson.

                       The Video

     Whereas the written documents require the reader to cognitively relate them, as Sardie adds no material on his own, the video deliberately builds a case against Johnson. First, a review is made of Johnson's rise to power with prominent mention of ballot box #13. Then Loy Factor tells his story through Glenn Sample and Mark Collom [26]. Factor is interviewed on film in a hospital shortly before his death in 1993. Factor claimed that Mac Wallace hired him for his markmanship for an unspecified job that turned out to be the shooting of JFK. Wallace was said to be shooting from the position on the sixth floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository which has been called by the Warren Commission and others as Oswald's "assassin’s lair".

    Madeleine Brown [see 27, 28], who claims to have been LBJ's mistress and the mother of his son, whom LBJ supported until LBJ died in 1973, was an associate producer of the film and she related some of her story in the video. She stated that an attorney who did work for Johnson, John Cofer, also represented Wallace in the Kinser trial and Estes when he was tried for the cotton allotment fraud. Estes reputedly wanted to take the stand and tell the whole story, but was prevented by Cofer. Madeleine Brown saw LBJ, Estes, Wallace and Cliff Carter in conference at the Driskoll Hotel just months before the assassination.

     Doug Caddy related that Estes told him that Bobby Kennedy offered him immunity if he would testify against LBJ, which offer Estes refused. Estes pointed out that Eddie Rinehart, Foreman of the jury that ruled George Marshall died from suicide, was appointed as a postmaster on the recommendation of Johnson one year after the Grand Jury deliberations. Audiotapes were made of Johnson's involvement in the various nefarious activities that usually involved Estes, LBJ, Wallace and Cliff Carter. While in prison, these tapes were in the possession of Lyle Brown, who listened to them. Estes, Carter and Lyle Brown met on September 20, 1971. Carter feared for his life; he was found dead the next day. It was reported that Carter died of natural causes.  The inference made on the video was that this was another of those strange deaths related to the assassination. 

    A press conference held in Dallas on May 27, 1998 is also featured. Walt Brown [see 29, 30] featured the fingerprint evidence identified as being from Mac Wallace. Some researchers are not convinced that the fingerprint is from Wallace, despite a 14 point match. A surprising non-acceptor of the fingerprint evidence is Glen Sample. The finding of Wallace's fingerprint at the precise point that Sample said Wallace was at which would hence strongly enhance Sample's version of events. Sample [31] claims not be convinced by the evidence so far.

     While individual reactions vary, I find the book to be somewhat more useful than the video, which some might see as showing a degree of anti-Johnson bias. If the conjectures regarding the Wallace-LBJ connection with the assassination of Kennedy hold under further scrutiny, does this end the search for JFK's killers?

My sense is that it would give light on one of the arms of the octopus, but there would be much more to learn. It also leads to the clamor for Billy Sol's story and audiotapes as well as wishing to view McClellan's manuscript and his other evidence.

Notes

1.  Sardie, L. (1998a). LBJ: A Closer Look-Research Materials.         www.freeyellow.com/members5/booksonvideo/index.html.

2.  Sardie, L. (1998b). LBJ: A Closer Look-Video. Trans World News      Network. www.freeyellow.com/members5/booksonvideo/index.html.

3.  Brown, W. (1998a). TSBD Evidence Places LBJ "Hit Man" in           "Sniper's Nest". JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly, 3, No. 3, Extra.

4.  The Fingerprint Affidavit of A. Nathan Darby, 9 March, 1998,        reprinted in JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly, 3, No. 3, 29-31.

5.  Caddy, D. (1984). Letter to Stephen S. Trott. Reproduced in        Sardie (1998a). 

6.  Hanners, D. (1984). Billie Sol Links LBJ to Murder. Dallas         Morning News, March 23, p. 1+. Reproduced in Sardie (1998a).

7.  Caddy (1984).

8.  Joe B. Frantz Interview with Bob Long. (1972, April 19).            Reproduced in Sardie (1998a).

9.  Ibid.

10. Jachimczyk, J.A. (1962). Autopsy Report of Henry Harvey            Marshall. Reproduced in Sardie (1998a).

11. Grand Jury Disagreed Marshall was Murdered. (1962). The Dallas      Norning News. May 30, 1962. Reproduced in Sardie (1998a).

12. Garrison, H. (1962). Letter to Judge Barron. Reproduced in         Sardie (1998a).

13. Graves, D. (1985). Investigator's Death in Case Ruled Homicide.      Houston Chronicle. August 14, 1985. Reproduced in Sardie           (1998a).

14. Adler, B. (1986). The Killing of Henry Marshall. The Texas         Observer, Nov. 7. Reproduced in Sardie (1998a).

15. Wantland, C. (1962). The Story of George Parr's Ballot Box No.      13. The Texas Argus, 35, 2, 1-4. Reproduced in Sardie (1998a).

16. Below is the Complete Story of Box 13, Jim Wells County, Texas.      (1962). Abilene Reporter-News, October 29, 1962. Reproduced in      Sardie (1998a).

17. Prouty, L.F. (1992). JFK: The CIA Vietnam, and the Plot to         Assassinate John F. Kennedy. New York: Birch Lane Press.

18. Scott, P.D. (1993). Deep Politics and the Death of JFK:            Berkley: The University of California Press.

19. National Security Action Memorandum No. 273. (1963). November      26. Reproduced in Sardie (1998a).

20. Lewis, T. (1963). LBJ Problems: Bobby Baker and the TFX. The       Dallas Morning News, December 21. Reproduced in Sardie (1998a).

21. Blair, W.M. (1964). House Unit Clears Johnson and Others in        Estes Case. New York Times, October 12. Reproduced in Sardie       (1998a).

22. Johnson Says He'll Get the Facts on Jenkins. (1964). The           Spartainburg Herald. October 20. Reproduced in Sardie (1998a).

23. The Strange Case of Walter Jenkins. (1964). Exclusive. October      21. Reproduced in Sardie (1998a).

24. McClellan, B. (1998). Petition Submitting New Evidence and         Suggesting Further Investigation. Petition to the Assassination      Records Review Board, May 28. Reproduced in Sardie (1998a).

25. Williams, J.D. (1999). LBJ and the Assassination Conspiracies.

    JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly, 3, No. 3, 29-31.

26.  Sample, G. & Collom, M. (1995). The Men on the Sixth Floor.:       The Story of Loy Factor, an Insider/Participant in the JFK         Killing. Garden Grove, CA: Sample Graphics.

27. Brown, M.D. (1997). Texas in the Morning: The Love Story of        Madeleine Duncan Brown and President Lyndon Baines Johnson.        Baltimore: The Conservatory Press.

28. Brown, M.D. & Kritzberg, C. (1996). Dallas Did It. Tulsa, OK:      Under Cover Press.

29. Brown, W. (1995). Treachery in Dallas. New York: Carroll &         Graff.

30. Brown, W. (1996). The Warren Ommission: A Micro-Study in the       Methods and Failures of the Warren Commission. Wilmington, DE:      Delmax.

31. Sample, G. (1999). Men on the Sixth Foor Website.

    www.home.earthlink.net/~sixthfloor/  

From The Fourth Decade: A Journal of Research on the John F. Kennedy Assassination. (1999). 6, 4, 3-6.