Phillip F. Nelson - LBJ: From Mastermind to “The Colossus”

Copyright 2014 by Phillip F. Nelson

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nelson, Phillip F.

LBJ: from mastermind to the colossus: the lies, treachery, and treasons continue/Phillip F. Nelson.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-62873-692-2 (hardcover: alk. paper)ISBN 978-1-62914-026-1 (ebook) 1. Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973. 2. PresidentsUnited StatesBiography. 3. United StatesPolitics and government1963-1969. I. Title.

E847.N47 2014

973.923092dc23

[B]

2014032417

Cover photo courtesy of the LBJ Presidential Library

Printed in the United States of America

LBJ: FROM MASTERMIND TO THE COLOSSUS

The Lies, Treachery, and Treasons Continue

Dedicated to the memory of Texas Ranger/U.S. Marshal Clint Peoples, whose relentless but failed pursuit of Lyndon Johnsons criminal machinationshis success coming finally eleven years after Johnson diedforms the foundation upon which this book rests. It was his lifes work that proves the case being made against Lyndon B. Johnson.

And also to Plato, who said:
The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

And finally, to my wonderful wife, Karen, whose patience and forbearance allowed me the opportunity to indulge my efforts to resist becoming apathetic.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

GEORGE ORWELL

F or decades after John Kennedys assassination, as I pursued my corporate career, I had accepted that the official story of the assassination was a fabrication. During all that time, in the deepest recesses of my mind, the enigma of that unsolved crime lingered as I came to believe that the governments findings had been created to assuage the survivors guilt that afflicted most people who experienced the after-effects of the trauma during that first decade. I began to realize that the cover-up was a very sophisticated yet deeply fissured plan that worked only because it exploited the fright and anxiety being felt simultaneously by those same people while offering them a much safer alternative to the real dangers lurking in the background: Worst among them was the pandemic fear, already felt in those cold war years, of the next war, now that the arsenals were filled with the most horrific bombs ever made. Add to this the unthinkable yet viable notion of wars being fought merely for the pecuniary or political gain of the leaders who waged them. Another was a fear of the possibility that invisible and enigmatic, secret forces were responsible for JFKs murder. And still another was an unknown politician who had previously been the butt of a lot of jokes ending in Lyndon, Who? Suddenly, an entire country wanted to know more about this gangly Texan, a rather crude cowboy who was now president, and, most disturbing to many who were paying attention, the newspapers and magazines throughout the country had been printing some troubling articles about his closest associates.

The articles didnt stop there, however, and that is where things got more interesting: Stories of political chicanery and sales of political influence, government agencies dispensing licenses to powerful politicians to conduct monopoly businesses, government fraud on a massive scale, rumors of Washington party girls dancing naked in tubs of champagne, and even a number of unusual suicides, which many suspected were purposely misclassified. It is little wonder that the safe alternative the government provided allowed the citizenry to put all those lingering questions aside and allow time to distill them into the accepted official story as it had been set by a presidential commission of august men.

Many of the original books on the subject were focused simply on the implausibility of the Oswald as lone assassin canard. Accepting the obvious implications, and the fact that most of the evidence had been locked away or destroyed, I knew intuitively that there was much more to this story but had resigned myself to the fact that the truth would not be revealed within my lifetime, that the real story was meant for future generations. When I retired in 2003 that was my mind-set. But it would soon change, because in November of that year, I watched as The History Channel added three new episodes to the six they had already done on the JFK assassination under the main title, The Men Who Killed Kennedy. Indeed, the catalyst of my renewed interest in the case was the last of the three new episodes added that year, The Guilty Men, which centered on Lyndon Johnsons alleged role in the assassination; upon seeing that segment, I was stunned by the realization that my long-held suspicions about Johnson had been vindicated. As noted in later chapters of this book, several of the remaining Johnson sycophants forced The History Channel to never rebroadcast it after 2003, but, thankfully, it remains available for purchase or free viewing on YouTube. It was this video that caused an epiphany for me and resulted, after more research into the subject three years later, in my decision to write a book that presented all of the circumstantial evidence that had already accumulated over many decades, yet had never been connected into a coherent and thorough narrative. So, again, I credit all the people who contributed to or produced that video.

Within that last (ninth episode) video, The Guilty Men, it was the voice of long-time researcher Ed Tatro that caught my attention the most. I have since met Ed and we have become friends. I have come to believe that he has a keener, deeper, and wider level of knowledge of this subject than any other man or woman alive today. He has been of tremendous help to me in understanding how the pieces of this puzzle fit together, the nuances of otherwise mind-boggling details and the personality traits of many people he personally interviewed and/or corresponded with, men such as Billie Sol Estes, Roger Craig, Gordon Novel, Richard Bissell, Paul Rothermel Jr., Clay Shaw, Earl Ruby, Charles Harrelson, and Chauncey Holt, and women such as Madeleine Brown, Marina Oswald, and Marguerite Oswald (this is a shortened list, as the complete one might take up the entire page). Ed has written his own manuscript, which has never been published. Although he remains undecided about ever publishing it, if he does, he should have no trouble finding a publisher. One of his friends, Bill Cheslock, came along at precisely the right time, just weeks before the 50th anniversary of JFKs assassination and wrote a short paragraph thatdespite being rejected by the Cape Cod Times became the denouement (literally, the final paragraph) of this book. David Denton, another friend of Ed Tatros, graciously invited me to appear at both his fiftieth anniversary JFK conference in Illinois and the 2014 conference in Arlington, Virginia on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Warren Commission Report. Another person who entered the scene as I developed the book is Dr. David W. Robinson, an adjunct professor of education at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon, who graciously helped me by reviewing the final copy before I sent it to the publisher. He also volunteered to write the foreword, for which I am very grateful. A new and very helpful acquaintance, the well-connected and debonair author Roger Stone, has been very helpful to me in expanding the audience for this book. His own book, coauthored by Mike Colapietro, The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ, has been a great complement to my own first book, adding much context to an evolving story of Shakespearean drama and dimensions.