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Overview
In addition to revealing new information, McClellan answers common questions surrounding the assassination of our thirty-fifth president. Who had the opportunity, motive, and means to assassinate J.F.K.? Who controlled the investigation and findings of the Warren Commission? This historically significant book is proof that absolute power, money, blood, corruption, and deception were at the heart of politics in the early 1960s, and it represents the very best investigative journalism has to offer.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781616081973 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Skyhorse |
| Publication date: | 02/23/2011 |
| Pages: | 464 |
| Sales rank: | 379,585 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d) |
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Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Epiphany
Lyndon Johnson ended his days as president on January 20, 1969. When Richard Nixon took the oath of office at noon ceremonies in Washington, D.C., Johnson's reign of power ended. Johnson had lunch with friends that day, then boarded the helicopter for the ride to Andrews Air Force Base and the long flight home to Austin.
In the evening darkness, Air Force One landed at Bergstrom Air Force Base southeast of Austin. Only a small crowd was there to welcome the ex-president. There was no vast turnout of supporting citizens, no parade followed by a dinner banquet, and no welcome-home speeches. He did not return the conquering hero. With the Vietnam War still going strong and with the widespread criticism of Johnson, he had few adoring friends left even in the city where a majority stood behind him no matter what he did. The small crowd included his key lawyers, a few other diehard supporters, and those still on his payroll. Austin knew he had failed as president, that the city would never have the income it realized while he was in office, and that the new life he was entering would never be the same. After a few perfunctory waves and handshakes at Bergstrom, Johnson got in a limousine, took the long drive home to his ranch the other side of Johnson City, and began to settle into what remained of his future.
The change could not have been greater. From days filled with constant activity and innumerable decisions, from the pressing demands for his time at a job that was "24 and 7," Johnson suddenly had nothing to do. From the eye of a driving hurricane to a cold, dry, and very boring ranch, Johnson had time to think and reminisce, to relive his presidency and all his political years, and to try to develop a schedule for things to do, one that had some life in it. In that stark contrast between constant, controlled chaos and a veritable vacuum, he had no choice but to evaluate his life.
He did not like what he saw.
Soon after the bitter return, Johnson fell into a deep depression. In that combination of melancholy and listlessness marked with outbursts of energy in his continuing delusion of the grandeur that could have been, Johnson's paranoia returned, the fear that had first manifested itself shortly after November 22, 1963, when he had become president in those shocking moments in Dealey Plaza. His depression quickly turned severe and long-lasting, presenting itself in a manner that was life-threatening. As visitors came by to see him, their remarks echoed to the same refrain, that Johnson had become "totally withdrawn" and appeared to have "lost his moorings." One adviser remarked, only half in jest, that Johnson was his "normal, manic-depressive self."
Another development only worsened his melancholy. Johnson was preparing his memoirs. The plan was for three volumes, starting with the presidency, then covering the congressional years, and finally reliving his childhood. Interestingly, the program would be perfect for the psychotherapy he would soon begin.
Johnson could not write; he would only review what others scripted for him, making notes and adding comments. Each event necessarily triggered memories that might have best been suppressed because the ongoing confrontation with his "complex" past only heightened his anxiety, his fear of facing the end of his life — and of having to answer for it.
Johnson became still more depressed, and the combination of pessimism, fatigue, and insomnia heightened the continuing fear of another heart attack. Then, in May 1970, he suffered severe chest pains and was hospitalized. The diagnosis was angina, and, with a heart unable to withstand an operation, nitroglycerine pills were prescribed. He fell still further into a listless state that alternated between grandiosity and paranoia. For the first time, his appearance reflected his condition as his hair grew long, so much so that he was described as a "hippie" in those early morning hours at the ranch when he simply refused to groom himself. One of his lawyers remarked that Johnson had become what he had hated. Always able to compartmentalize what he thought, said, and did — to be "complex," Johnson now expected visitors to at least condone those "complexities" or, more accurately, his "peculiarities." He was clearly psychopathic.
Finally, despite his distaste for "shrinks" and "mind-benders," Johnson agreed to what was needed. Professional help was summoned, and his White House doctor, Admiral George Burkley, began a series of observations and interventions that proved partly successful; at least, he seemed to improve. His condition, however, was far worse than a general practitioner could treat. Any relief was temporary, at best.
Another event then entered Johnson's daily schedule to keep him busy, bringing him a small measure of relief. He had to plan for the dedication of his library in Austin, then nearing completion just east of the University of Texas campus. For the next year he was busy with those plans. With the grandiose plans underway, he seemed to be out of the black hole he had entered.
The library's ceremonies climaxed on May 25, 1971. After several days of greeting the dignitaries as they arrived, the unending parties, and a general feeling of good will from his friends, the formal dedication proved to be a great time had by all. For Austin, the glory days of Johnson's power had returned. The celebrations were short-lived, however, and, when the last visitor left, the vacuum returned.
This time, Johnson's wife determined to try again, and, believing Dr. Burkley could do little, she brought in the best psychiatrist available in Austin. The neuropsychiatrist was schooled in the latest approaches in psychotherapy, and he commenced an intense program of dynamic intervention that winter and spring of 1971 — 1972. It seemed to work.
Substantial legal questions were presented by the depth of the therapy, however, and Johnson's lawyers intervened once again, to require that the psychiatrist keep what was said secret forever, that he be paid through a standard trust agreement, and that any additional support for Johnson be given, as needed, from his closest and best friends, Ed Clark and Don Thomas; no others. During this time, along with two others, I prepared a memo on the secrecy required, of keeping the disclosures under wraps. We concluded that the attorney-client privilege was needed in addition to the physician's duty of privacy. At the time I had no idea it involved Johnson.
Over the course of three months in 1972, from April through June, Thomas visited Johnson at the ranch on at least three occasions. Key disclosures resulted. First, whatever was told the psychiatrist had to be protected by the attorney-client privilege. This meant the psychiatrist became an employee of the lawyers. Second, as an insurance policy to assure the psychiatrist was kept quiet, he became the beneficiary of a one-million-dollar trust set up through Johnson's money-laundering corporation, Brazos-Tenth, managed by Don Thomas. Finally, because the treatment rested on free association talk sessions and included even hypnosis, Johnson confronted his black hole, faced the demons, and found release. Late in the treatment, he went through a climax that gave him the peace of mind he needed.
Even though Johnson had been helped, he had to talk about his disclosures. For legal reasons, he knew that a necessary step was to tell his lawyers what had been done; that analysis was underway. To complete the catharsis, the cause of his depression had been revealed by the psychiatrist. With all the necessary information, Clark and Thomas could undertake the protective steps needed to assure that what had been said was not revealed. At the time, they did not know what had been revealed.
For Johnson, the dynamic psychotherapy was very demanding and that June, while visiting his daughter in Virginia, he suffered another major heart attack. Despite the severity of the attack, perhaps because Johnson had reached a sort of peace with his life and himself, he survived.
There was still another lingering problem, far deeper in its consequences. Johnson was never a religious man. He was not a member of any formal religion among the nation's Christian faiths. He did belong to a small church near the ranch, but remained essentially agnostic, a religion many men of the Depression accepted. "If I can t touch it, it ain't real," was a typical refrain. Johnson often remarked that his allegiance was to God, then his nation, his party, and his family. Since, in his often-repeated visions of grandeur, he considered himself God, the self-imposed pressure proved to be extraordinarily heavy. In those very personal demands of facing his final days, he developed this need for a sense of confession, apparently seeking absolution. He did not need the hell and damnation, the perdition he came to fear. As the man got religion in those final months, the mental stress was ever more demanding.
Johnson's key lawyers were kept informed of the overall progress during the final four months of Johnson's life, and, through my regular contacts with Thomas in litigation and travels, I later learned about the "climax" and the "release." On looking back, I am convinced that what Thomas confided in me was his own effort to ease the burden he received from Johnson.
There was that one final meeting with Johnson in about mid-December 1972 as Christmas approached, always a time of deep thinking by those facing death. What happened then was that Johnson disclosed his deepest problems and his deepest psychological revelations to Donald Thomas and transferred those demons to the attorney. Of necessity, legal steps were needed to preserve the Johnson legacy. A self-serving affidavit from the psychiatrist was taken.
On January 22, 1973, on another inaugural week four years after leaving the White House, Johnson ended his years. Midafternoon that day, he felt death coming and was initially prepared for it; however, at the last minute, he summoned help. The Secret Service hurried over and tried their best. Too late. Johnson was gone.
On that same day, the legends began as friends and historians attempted to grasp and understand what had happened. Since then, each has placed their unique spin on at least some of the facts, but the underlying realities are fast disappearing into the fog of history.
Over the last thirty years, Johnson has steadily declined in the public esteem. More recently, there has been an effort at rehabilitation. For a deeply conflicted man, his followers have tried to bring balance to his legacy. That is not possible because he was not a good man. The facts of his life conceded by all are not those of a person trying to do the right thing. Johnson was a mean, often bitter man. He would do anything to gain power and to retain power. He was willing to kill. And he did.
Today, Johnson's legend appears to teeter on an edge, looking into the abyss he created while his backers and apologists are trying hard to pull him back. That rehab effort should end, and Johnson should be left to fall into that darkness he brought upon himself so violently, that damnation he feared so desperately in his final months.
Take a look at what happened. He grew up in a background of violence, and his own childhood had all the markers of a psychopath. His career was one of lost elections that were stolen, capped by an agreement with his lawyer in 1949 to maintain the successful conspiracy to obtain that ultimate power — the presidency — that he so recklessly pursued. As the crimes became apparent, Johnson's inbred violence came to the fore. He was deeply involved in several murders and faced political oblivion and imprisonment. So motivated, his criminal career was capped with the assassination of President Kennedy.
Johnson is balanced on the brink. Take a close look at what he did, and then let him fall into that abyss where he belongs.
We need only to end the denial that finds expression on a national basis. For many years, I had the same denial. Surely Johnson could not have assassinated Kennedy. Finally, ten years after parting company with Johnson's lawyers, I faced up to that denial and ended it.
We need to accept what happened and face up to the need for improving our democracy.
In the pages that follow, I will lay out what I know, corroborated wherever possible by the available resources. In a final chapter, I will return to the known facts and go that one step further, to set out what had to have happened but is not of record. For those key events where I was not present, my inside knowledge of how Johnson's lawyers worked will tell the story of what most likely happened. For the demanding reader, ignore the "faction," as it is called, and concentrate on the known facts. They are enough.
For the reader who wants to know and appreciate how the assassination most likely happened, to see the assassins as they developed their conspiracy, read the scenarios in the chapter on "jury." See how a trial attorney would take the Johnson story to a jury and seek a final verdict.
For example, I was not at that last meeting between Johnson and Thomas in December 1972, but I have a very good insight into what happened. In order clearly to separate what I know personally from what I know most likely happened, I have placed my rendition of that final meeting in the "jury" chapter, one that closes with a final epiphany for Johnson, one that brings a sunset to the darkness he stood for. We can then see the horrific assassination, and its lingering effect on a nation still in denial.
Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.
— Shakespeare, Hamlet
CHAPTER 2Privilege
LBJ killed JFK? Unthinkable! An American vice president would never kill the president. That is impossible.
The perception is to the contrary. According to polls on the assassination, a solid 70 percent of Americans believe there was a conspiracy and that Johnson participated in some way, either knowing in advance or at least assisting in the coverup. Confronted with opinion running against Johnson, historian Robert Dallek was compelled to state, "He [Johnson] had absolutely nothing to do with JFK's assassination." No proof is offered for this assertion. Apparently relying on a personal assessment of the man, Dallek notes that the allegations of several crimes allegedly involving Johnson are inconclusive. At best, this assertion of fact that Johnson was not involved in any crimes has no supporting evidence. If there is evidence, then it must be produced by the historians. Of course, the negative cannot be proven with certainty but the depth of the allegations against Johnson have reached such a low point that they must be denied. The Johnson legacy is so terrible that his apologists are on the defensive as never before.
More revealing is the difference of opinion. In a very subtle way, the American view is that Johnson was involved but apparently not enough for an indictment and conviction. As a nation we seem to be saying, "We know Johnson was in on the assassination but we do not know exactly how." Was he involved only in the coverup? Did he know about the plans in advance? Was he part of the planning? Did he know exactly when and where Kennedy was going to be assassinated? The differences are far more important than mere semantics. Was Johnson "only" an accessory after the fact or was he in on the planning? Was he an assassin? Of course, any participation by the person who would benefit the most makes him criminally responsible to the maximum degree. If Johnson had even the slightest hint but said nothing, he becomes a member of the conspiracy. Stated bluntly, he becomes an assassin. Many researchers place him there, at least as an accessory. As we shall see, he was deeply involved.
Were the three basic elements to any crime present? Did Johnson have the motive, the means, and the opportunity?
Johnson's motivations included a determination to do anything to become the most powerful person in the world, a fear of total loss of power followed by indictment, and a willingness to go to the edge and beyond. The standard defense for Johnson is that he was "complex," implying that he did many things for many reasons and that there was no single motivation. This clever defense allowed Johnson to point only to good motives and to ignore the bad motives in even a single act. Since some of his complex motives were good, so the logic ran, he could not commit a crime.
Johnson also had the means at his control: a legal system in Texas controlled by his attorney, Edward A. Clark. Johnson and Clark, in turn, had a hired gun on hand for the dirty work.
Finally, when Kennedy, in June 1963, included Texas on his travel agenda, the opportunity was there. Where better to commit the crime than on the home courts or, more appropriately, in the home courts? There, Johnson and Clark could easily control the investigation and the coverup. So, Johnson suggested, urged, and supported the trip to Texas.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Blood, Money & Power"
by .
Copyright © 2011 Barr McClellan.
Excerpted by permission of Skyhorse Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction ix
1 Epiphany 1
2 Privilege 7
3 Roots 26
4 The Friendly City 45
5 Assassin 62
6 Lyin' Lyndon 81
7 Murders 98
8 Cash 116
9 High-Low 136
10 Inaugurals 155
11 Funerals 164
12 Bait 168
13 Details 180
14 Assassination 192
15 Run 208
16 Bonus 221
17 Jury 245
18 Sunset 274
19 Fight 289
20 Renewal 297
Conclusion 322
Appendix
Overview: Photos and Documents 315
Fingerprint Identification 323
Photos, Documents, and Fingerprint Exhibits 332a
Sources 333
Notes 341
Index 367
