Treason, Treachery & Deceit: The Murderers of Jfk, Mlk, & Rfk

By James D. Norvell

Historians may have locked the box on the JFK assassination and the life of Lyndon Baines Johnson but in reading James Norvells riveting out of the box tale, you will shiver with nagging thoughts of intrigue and doubt. Norvells semi-fictitious story, bolstered with historical facts, is a spellbinding masterpiece. He has interacted with principal characters particularly Madeleine Brown and Billie Sol Estes and done so in a personal manner and over an extended period of time. The more you read, the more youll wonder, Could this have happened? Be careful once you pick it up you wont put it down. Dynamite! John H. (Jack) Grubbs, Ph.D, Brigadier General (Ret.), U. S. Army, author of Dryline and Bad Intentions.
Jim Norvells unique approach to explaining the assassination of President Kennedy leads the reader into this complex and often difficult subject from a fresh direction. I recommend this book primarily because it exposes even the experienced student of the subject to information with which he may not have been familiar, and to possible associations between competing theories about what happened in Dallas, that may indicate many of them are not necessarily mutually exclusive after all. Mr. Norvell does not pull any punches, and does not sugar-coat the assassination story in any way. An engaging read. Douglas P. Horne, formerly Chief Analyst for Military Records, Assassination Records Review Board, B.A. in History, Ohio State University, and author of Inside the Assassination Records Review Board, Vol. I-V.
My classmate from the Naval Academy, Jim Norvell, has put together a very shocking scenario that leads to a very different assassination event than the lone gunman, lone event, Oswald-did-it type answer. Instead he constructs a list of timed events with key power brokers in 1963 that provides a hard-core conspiratorial assassination plot. . . And if you are not entirely convinced these diverse power brokers can mesh and team to make the killing of a President possible, then go very slowly through the chapters that lay down the assassination time lines . . .Point by point, bullet by bullet, the historical novel unfolds. . . .But I assure you that it will not end with a lone event, a lone gunman.
Two additional assassinations follow with the shootings of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Norvell drives you back in time to the 60s to piece together for you an entirely different assassination than the one focused on Oswald and defended as such by the Warren Commission. This is a very good read for all and especially for those who to this day can remember where we were on November 22, 1963. Alexander J. Krekich, Vice Admiral, U. S. Navy (Retired); B.S. U.S. Naval Academy 1964, M.S.A. George Washington University, 1972; U.S. Army Command & General Staff College, 1973; and Naval War College, 1978.
I extend personal thanks to Jim Norvell for his deep insights, for connections not uncovered anywhere else, and for bringing us nearer to the solution to the most horrific crime in American History, horrific for what it did to one man and his family, horrific for what it did to America, and horrific for the failure of the authorities to mete out justice. Barr McClellan, B.A., J.D., University of Texas, author of Blood, Money and Power, How LBJ Killed JFK, and former law partner with LBJs attorney, Ed Clark.
Jim Norvells historical novel is a truly remarkable study of a broad range of facts surrounding a single individual. What he has carefully developed is almost unthinkable to well-adjusted human beings. To my knowledge, this depiction has not been accomplished before in our time, and he should be commended for all the long years of effort that it required. I found that his identification of LBJ as a narcissist is quite well-founded. There is a long and well-established history of those traits among world leaders in every field, many in very public roles. Health care professionals have identified and articulated in te

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 13, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493144075

James D. Norvell

James D. Norvell graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1964 with a degree in civil engineering, and served three tours in Vietnam as a Lt. Commander. While in the Navy he obtained an MSE from Michigan and a juris doctorate with honors from George Washington University. After resigning from the Navy he practiced law for thirty years, winning many large verdicts as a business tort trial lawyer. Having contracted several Agent-Orange-related diseases, James was rendered 100% disabled. One of his main goals was to write this book, and upon completion of it, died on December 6, 2013. He is survived by his wife, Barbara, four children, and four grandchildren. He resided in Fort Worth, Texas.

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FRONTESPIECE

"Wherever it finds a breeding ground, corruption weakens and ultimately rots the fabric of every human endeavor it touches. Where corruption gains a foothold in government it undermines and, if not rooted out, destroys the very foundation upon which our system of representative self-government is built. When elected officials corruptly serve private masters—and themselves—to the detriment of those who entrust them with public office, the democratic process is made a mockery and democracy dies.¹

William F. Sessions

Former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

and Former Federal District Judge

TREASON, TREACHERY

& DECEIT

The Murderers of JFK, MLK, & RFK

James D. Norvell, J. D.

Copyright © 2014 by James D. Norvell, J. D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 10/03/2014

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Contents

Introduction

Endorsements

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Prologue

Chapter One The Looming Crisis

Chapter Two Actions Toward Accomplishing the Goal

Chapter Three The Assassination of the President

Chapter Four Richard Case Nagell and the Oswald Impostor

Chapter Five The Honest Dr. Crenshaw

Chapter Six Laying the Cover-up Traps

Chapter Seven Fallout

Chapter Eight Unraveling the Conspiracy

Chapter Nine Guns or Butter—Statistics or Experience?

Chapter Ten LBJ’s Turning Point and the Murders of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy

Chapter Eleven LBJ: The Last Man Standing

Chapter Twelve Plotters, Planners, and Shooters

Epilogue

APPENDICES

Appendix A NOEL TWYMAN’S EXHIBITS FROM BLOODY TREASON

Appendix B Smoking Guns in the Death of JFK Reprinted by Permission of Open Court Publishing Company, a division of CARUS Publishing Co., dba ePals Media, Chicago, III.

Appendix C Epiphanies, from INSIDE THE ARRB, VOL. I pp.25-58 By Permission of Douglas Horne, Author

Appendix D Illustrations from Inside the ARRB Vol. I, pp. 130ff, Figures 1-90

Appendix E INSIDE THE ARRB, VOL. I "The ARRB Medical Evidence Depositions and Unsworn Interviews," pp. 59-68 Permission by Douglas Horne, Author

Appendix F Deposition of J. Thornton Boswell, M.D., before the AARB on 26 February 1996 Edited by David W. Mantik, M.D., Ph.D.

Appendix G Dr. David Mantik, M.D., PhD’s Reply to Vincent Bugliosi

Appendix H Gerald R. Ford’s Admission Of Falsifying The JFK Autopsy Report To The New York Times

Appendix I Dr. Charles Crenshaw’s Exhibits from TRAUMA ROOM ONE, by Charles A. Crenshaw, M.D. Permission Granted by Susan L. Crenshaw, Dr. Crenshaw’s Widow

Appendix J ESSAY ON AF1’S TAPES AND SUBSEQUENT EVENTS-What Was Supposed to Happen vs. What Did Happen By Douglas Horne

Appendix K Photos by Jack White From Mysteries of the JFK Assassination: The Photographic Evidence from A to Z in The Great Zapruder Film Hoax, (Chicago: Catfeet Press, 2003), pp. 52, 62, 64, 76-79, 83, 86 and 87 By Permission of James H. Fetzer. PhD, Editor

Appendix L Warren Commission Report, Appendix VIII MEDICAL REPORTS FROM DOCTORS AT PARKLAND MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, DALLAS, TEXAS

INTRODUCTION

To Treason, Treachery, and Deceit

John A. Knubel, BS, US Naval Academy, 1962

Rhodes Scholar, First Class Honors Degree in Politics,

Philosophy and Economics

Oxford University, UK

and

Veteran holder of assistant secretary level offices at DOE, SecNav, HUD, and to Henry Kissinger’s NSC Staff during Watergate

This book can profitably be read by people with diverse interests for many reasons and purposes:

1. Forthoseseekingrecreation,itisaninterestingpieceofhistoricalfictionandcanbereadasanovel.It’swellwritten.Whenfinishedreadingit,youmaymissitasyoumightagoodfriend;

2. Forthepoliticalscienceprofessional,Jim’sempirical,insider’sperspectivegivesausefulfunctionalglimpseintoaperiodofAmericanhistorywhenAmericastruggledtodefineandadjusttoanewroleofworldleadershipfollowingtwoworldwars;

3. Forthehistorian,pursuinghistoricaltruth,Jim’snovelwillreopenquestionsmanyhaverepeatedlytriedtobury.Why,despitetheplethoraofunansweredquestionsandobviousapparentfalsificationsoftherecord,istheresomuchfeartocontinuethepursuitoftruth?OnereasonmaybewefeartheoutcomewillbeanotherAmericannightmareworsethanWatergate,IranContra,orworse;

4. Forthosewhocravenewammunitionwithwhichtoteardownthecredibilityofgovernment,thereismorethanenoughsuppliedinthesimpledescriptionofthereprehensiblemoral,ethicalandpersonalqualitiesexudedbytheadmittedlyfictionalleadersJimdescribes.Theirobsessive-compulsivebehavior,lackofpersonalclassandlackofthemoralstrengthandbackbonethatAmericanshaverightfullycometoexpectoftheirleadersisshowntobesadlylackingintheprincipalcharactersofthisstory;

5. Butreadingthisbookwillalsogenerateanewhopeforthosewho,likemyself,wanttobelieveintheuniquegoodnessofourgovernment,despiteitsbeing,asSirWinstonChurchillfamouslysaid,Itistheworstformofgovernmentexceptforalltheothers.Forus,thelessonisthatdespitethechicaneryandmoraldepravityofitsactors,Americansociety,andourformofgovernmentremainsstrong,vibrantandadmiredbymanytheworldover.

I first met Jim Norvell while a first-class midshipman (senior) at the US Naval Academy in 1962. My journey has taken me through a metamorphosis from a naive Eagle Scout, member of the National Honor Society, young High school student who believed in American innocence, to the older but wiser patriotic realist" I am today. My journey corroborated the plausibility of Jim’s admittedly fictional work.

While serving on Dr. Henry Kissinger’s National Council Staff (1970-1973), a colleague personally warned me away from continuing a too close personal association with the domestic side of the White House staff. A key component of the illegal and immoral shenanigans the domestic staff delved into is well-documented and was manned primarily by retired CIA operatives whose illegal and immoral activities brought an otherwise competent if morally weak President to his knees as I watched close at hand. So, if true, what Jim describes is not without parallel and needn’t be entirely accurate in its depictions of human depravity for its historical lessons to be useful.

John A. Knubel

July 2013

John A. Knubel served in US submarines and left the US Navy as a lieutenant commander, U.S.N. while serving as a Naval Officer on Henry Kissinger’s National Security Council Staff to help organize the government to engage the energy crisis of 1973. Since then, he has pursued an eclectic forty-year career as a senior leader in banking, financial services and government.

ENDORSEMENTS

1. Norvell’shistoricalnovelilluminatestheassassinationsheconsiders,especiallywithfascinatingreconstructedconversations.Itmaynotbethefinalword,buttherecanbenodoubtthathecomesclosertothetruthaboutJFK,MLK,andRFKthananyAmericanhistorytext.

—James H. Fetzer, PhD, Editor of the highly acclaimed and ground-breaking Assassination Science (1998), Murder in Dealey Plaza (2000), and The Great Zapruder Film Hoax (2003), he is a distinguished McKnight University professor at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

2. HistoriansmayhavelockedtheboxontheJFKassassinationandthelifeofLyndonBainesJohnson,butinreadingJamesNorvell’srivetingoutoftheboxtale,youwillshiverwithnaggingthoughtsofintrigueanddoubt.Norvell’ssemifictitiousstory,bolsteredwithhistoricalfacts,isaspellbindingmasterpiece.Hehasinteractedwithprincipalcharacters—particularlyMadeleineBrownandBillieSolEstes—anddonesoinapersonalmannerandoveranextendedperiodoftime.Themoreyouread,themoreyou’llwonder,Couldthishavehappened?Becareful—onceyoupickitup,youwillforeverdoubtthepresentlyacceptedversionoftheJFKassassination.

—John H. (Jack) Grubbs, PhD, Brigadier General (Ret.), U S Army, author of The Dryline, Bad Intentions, and The Voice Heard Around the World.

3. JimNorvell’suniqueapproachtoexplainingtheassassinationofPresidentKennedyleadsthereaderintothiscomplexandoftendifficultsubjectfromafreshdirection.Irecommendthisbookprimarilybecauseitexposeseventheexperiencedstudentofthesubjecttoinformationwithwhichhemaynothavebeenfamiliar,andtopossibleassociationsbetweencompetingtheoriesaboutwhathappenedinDallas,thatmayindicatemanyofthemarenotnecessarilymutuallyexclusiveafterall.Mr.Norvelldoesnotpullanypunchesanddoesnotsugarcoattheassassinationstoryinanyway.Anengagingread.

—Douglas P. Horne, formerly Chief Analyst for Military Records, Assassination Records Review Board: author of Inside the ARRB, Vols. 1-5; BA in history, the Ohio State University.

4. Jim Norvell’s historical novel addresses the part played by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the assassination of JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King Jr. It combines authenticity with chilling, behind-the-scenes conversations. Read the book; finish the puzzle that has haunted us for fifty years.

—Patrice K. Beam, BA, Simpson College 1978, MA, Iowa State University 1988, former Adjunct Professor of History, Upper Iowa University and a Public Historian who has authored and edited numerous nonfiction articles and publications.

5. MyclassmatefromtheNavalAcademyJimNorvellhasputtogetheraveryshockingscenariothatleadstoaverydifferentassassinationeventthanthelonegunman,loneevent,Oswald-did-ittypeanswer.Instead,heconstructsalistoftimedeventswithkeypowerbrokersin1963thatprovidesahard-coreconspiratorialassassinationplot.Andifyouarenotentirelyconvincedthesediversepowerbrokerscanmeshandteamtomakethekillingofapresidentpossible,thengoveryslowlythroughthechaptersthatlaydowntheassassinationtimelines.Pointbypoint,bulletbybullet,thehistoricalnovelunfolds.ButIassureyouthatitwillnotendwithaloneevent,alonegunman.TwoadditionalassassinationsfollowwiththeshootingsofMartinLutherKingJr.andRobertF.Kennedy.Norvelldrivesyoubackintimetothe’60stopiecetogetherforyouanentirelydifferentassassinationthantheonefocusedonOswaldanddefendedassuchbytheWarrenCommission.ThisisaverygoodreadforallandespeciallyforthosewhotothisdaycanrememberwherewewereonNovember22,1963.

—Alexander J. Krekich, Vice Admiral, US Navy (Retired); BS US Naval Academy 1964, MSA George Washington University, 1972; US Army Command and General Staff College, 1973; and Naval War College, 1978

6. IextendpersonalthankstoJimNorvellforhisdeepinsights,forconnectionsnotuncoveredanywhereelse,andforbringingusnearertothesolutiontothemosthorrificcrimeinAmericanHistory,horrificforwhatitdidtoonemanandhisfamily,horrificforwhatitdidtoAmerica,andhorrificforthefailureoftheauthoritiestometeoutjustice.

—Barr McClellan, BA, JD, University of Texas, author of Blood, Money and Power, How LBJ Killed JFK, and former law partner with LBJ’s attorney, Ed Clark.

7. JimNorvell’shistoricalnovelisatrulyremarkablestudyofabroadrangeoffactssurroundingasingleindividual.Whathehascarefullydevelopedisalmostunthinkabletowell-adjustedhumanbeings.Tomyknowledge,thisdepictionhasnotbeenaccomplishedbeforeinourtime,andheshouldbecommendedforallthelongyearsofeffortthatitrequired.IfoundthathisidentificationofLBJasanarcissistisquitewellfounded.Thereisalongandwell-establishedhistoryofthosetraitsamongworldleadersineveryfield,manyinverypublicroles.Healthcareprofessionalshaveidentifiedandarticulatedintextbooksdifferenttypesofnarcissismandtheirsymptomatictraits,someofwhichareincrediblydestructiveandactuallyevil.Jim’snovelacutelyandaccuratelydisplaysthepersonificationofpureevilinLBJ.Ithinkhehaswrittenaseriousbestsellerthatwillleadreaderstothoughtfullyandcarefullyexaminethetraitsandactionswhichourpublicfiguresdisplay.

—Ray C. Witter, Rear Admiral, US Navy (Ret.), BS US Naval Academy, 1964 and MS, Engineering Acoustics, Naval Postgraduate School

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Over a decade ago, I consulted Jim Marrs, author of the excellent book Crossfire, about this project. He encouraged me and recommended that I write it as an historical novel (a nonfiction book based on actual facts, using some fictional parts and persons). With his wise counsel as a catalyst, I began a fifteen-year quest to gather facts to write this book. I read Mark Lane’s Rush to Judgment and Harold Weisberg’s Whitewash and conversed with both of them. Their response was, as with most assassination researchers (not that odious term conspiracy theorists), encouraging. Harold Weisberg also wrote the book Case Open, as a scathing rebuttal of Gerald Posner’s book Case Closed, which Weisberg considered a best-selling bunch of trash. He complained that he gave Posner access to his basement, which was full of documents from which he drew his books, and Posner and his wife spent at most thirty minutes in his treasure trove. He told me that if he had known what Posner was doing, i.e., whitewashing the whole affair of the Warren Commission, he would never have allowed Posner in the house. These authors have led the way for most of us; their work, when viewed in retrospect, shows how prescient they were. The late Billie Sol Estes, who followed his cellmate Vito Genovese in Ft. Leavenworth Prison into alcoholism, also followed his advice: Billie, just keep your damned mouth shut! He did, and he lived to a ripe old age of eighty-eight, but not before he told me what he knew about the assassinations.

This work began as a screenplay, which I submitted to Howard Phillips, chairman of Conservative Caucus Inc. He liked it and asked some friends in Washington, DC, about it, and they recommended that I write a well-documented novel from which a proper screenplay would be drawn; work on the novel began over a decade ago. I am thankful to Howard for his encouragement in the beginning of this long saga.

I have had the help of some men and women of very great stature: Jean Hill, author of JFK-The Last Dissenting Witness; and Madeleine Brown, author of the book about her life with LBJ entitled Texas in the Morning—two women of great courage, who were of substantial help in writing this book. When I told Madeleine that Steven Brown, her child by LBJ, would be the main character in the book, she was delighted.

Some prominent authors have allowed me to quote their text and use their images: James H. Fetzer, PhD, who conducted symposia and compiled Murder in Dealey Plaza, Assassination Science, and The Great Zapruder Film Hoax; Douglas P. Horne, chief analyst for military records on the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) who wrote a five-volume set of books entitled Inside the Assassination Records Review Board, Volumes I-V; Cyril Wecht, MD, PhD; and David W. Mantik, MD, PhD, whose articles appear in James Fetzer’s books and online; Susan Crenshaw, widow of Charles Crenshaw, MD, who wrote JFK: A Conspiracy of Silence and Trauma Room One; Barr McClellan, author of Blood, Money and Power, about his life as a partner in LBJ’s law firm, of which the crooked fixer for LBJ, Ed Clark, was the senior partner; and Noel Twyman, author of Bloody Treason, who has encouraged me and given me permission to utilize his Zapruder film images and associated comments, as well as some of his graphs, but still within the parameters of fair use. These men and women have helped me without strings attached, and I take my hat off to them for having spent their own time, talents, and money to force the truth out of the nooks and crannies that the Warren Commission (WC), the House Select Committee on Assassination (HSCA), and the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) would have left unresolved. These are the true patriots who refused to allow the conspirators to fraudulently hoodwink the public.

I found The Assassinations, edited by James DiEugenio and Lisa Pease, on the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK to be a handy reference and very informative. Lisa Pease’s Internet articles on the RFK assassination proved to be very helpful.

Special credit goes to Douglas Horne, who has virtually given the most productive years of his life and that of his family to solving these murders, and to my classmates and friends from the United States Military Academy Preparatory School and the United States Naval Academy for reading, editing, and endorsing this book. Special thanks go to Nicole Stover, my stepgrandchild, who helped me organize my books and compile my bibliography. Those who have helped in improving my story are John H. (Jack) Grubbs, brigadier general, US Army (retired), PE, PhD, author of Bad Intentions, The Dryline, and The Voice Heard Around the World, who provided invaluable help in editing this book; Patrice Beam, a Vietnam War widow and public historian, author of numerous nonfiction articles, who encouraged me and edited along the way over several years; and Barr McClellan, author of Blood, Money and Power, How LBJ Killed JFK, a book that parallels mine in many ways, who also provided a helpful review and a foreword for this book. These talented people have gone above and beyond mere friendship to make this a better product. Last but not least of my reviewers and editors is my wife, Barbara Norvell, LCSW, LMFT, who provided me encouragement, editing and helpful advice, and to whom this book is dedicated.

Those who have provided endorsements of this book are included in the endorsements section of this book and on the dust cover.

James D. Norvell, MSc, JD

Fort Worth, Texas

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James D. Norvell graduated in 1964 from the U.S. Naval Academy with a degree in naval engineering, and served in Vietnam, contracting several Agent-Orange diseases, resulting in his being a 100 percent disabled veteran. While in the Navy, he obtained an MSE from Michigan and a juris doctor with honors from George Washington University. After resigning his commission as a lieutenant commander, he practiced law for thirty years, achieving many large verdicts as a business tort trial lawyer. He and his wife, Barbara, reside in Fort Worth, Texas. He has four children and four grandchildren.

Jim Norvell’s

TREASON, TREACHERY,

AND DECEIT

Foreword by Barr McClellan, BA, JD, University of Texas, and author of Blood, Money & Power, and How LBJ Killed JFK, a book about the Johnson-Ed Clark conspiracy. McClellan is a former law partner with Ed Clark, LBJ’s attorney

Treason. Treachery. Deceit. The vital elements in the assassination of John Kennedy by Lyndon Johnson. The president is killed by his vice president. Murder beyond redemption. A kill zone too horrific to view or describe.

Jim Norvell tells what happened in the high drama that accompanies that coup d’état in Dallas, the awful treachery among the families at the top. Unbelievable. Unacceptable. Vicious beyond reason. By a man without moral compass, except for his own greed for power, prestige, and money.

Understand Jim is thoroughly qualified to write the story, and he proceeds through the eyes of LBJ’s victims, up close and personal, the way these awful tragedies go down. We are dealing with real people in the real world of power and its abuse.

Jim is most effective by telling what happened through the eyes of Johnson’s own son, the child of his mistress for life. What happens to mother and son in the vicious hands of the father… You have to read Treason, Treachery, and Deceit to feel and to know what they knew.

Madeleine Brown and Steven. Two members of the Johnson family so near the heart of what happened. The drama unfolds in their innocence.

Jim is uniquely qualified to tell the story. He was there at the inauguration, near Johnson’s home where the murder of a government auditor was planned. In addition, Jim was in the military—three tours in Vietnam, able to make the connections to the government agencies involved. He was there, knowing every emotion the nation knew as the assassination unfolded and the funeral services moved ahead.

Jim looks at real people in the drama a novel allows. He touches the emotions.

Jim then makes the connection few have disclosed. He bridges the gap, between Johnson’s carefully concealed crimes back in Texas—far from Washington’s cocktail circles—and then back to the CIA.

Treason, Treachery, and Deceit also exposes the high crimes and corruption Johnson pursues through the late Billie Sol Estes. Yet Estes was controlled by the power Johnson exercised over Texas, by and through Austin power attorney Ed Clark. Jim understands the allegedly illegal secured transactions charged against Estes were not crimes. He speaks favorably for the pardon owed Estes. He knows there were crimes but they were not committed by Estes.

He should know. He was attorney for Estes in several different cases.

Most specifically, he knew the key people: Madeleine, Steven, Billie Sol, and Billie Sol’s family friend, Kyle Brown. He knew others active with Johnson and his crimes, the crimes he allowed others to blame only Estes, instead of himself. Then Jim knew and worked closely with paralegal Kyle Brown, who had talked long hours with Cliff Carter about Johnson’s crimes, about what Billie Sol wanted to tell the Justice Department.

Based on this information and experience, Jim tells us the relations with the CIA, bringing together a credible account of what really happened. With the skill of a trial attorney, Jim bridges that gap. He is one of the few able to do so.

Treason, Treachery, and Deceit provides a fascinating account of the dark politics involved, of the evil men working with their leader, and of how the assassination came down.

The problem that remains, says Jim, is that we need the paper trail. As an attorney, he knows you cannot escape the need for proof. In my view, Jim has that part of the assassination that brings us to the tapes, to the actual records now coming into the public eye to the best evidence yet to be found, if ever.

Treason, treachery, and deceit. Those were the vicious character traits that moved Johnson forward and led to all that happened. Jim Norvell shows us how the crimes developed, how the criminals were carefully guided in the desired directions, and how they ultimately resulted in the death of John Kennedy.

Take a firsthand walk through that most evil of high crimes, one of treason, of treachery, of deceit.

Ultimately, all was in the hands of Lyndon Johnson.

I extend personal thanks to Jim Norvell for his deep insights, for connections not uncovered anywhere else, and for bringing us nearer to the solutions to the most horrific crime in American history, horrific for what it did to one man and his family, horrific for what it did to America, and horrific for the failure of the authorities to mete out justice.

We honor John Kennedy in November. Appropriate remembrances cry out for solving the crime.

Jim has shown us critical paths to that solution and to proper memorials for John Kennedy.

Jim delivers what he promises in Treason, Treachery, and Deceit.

America must pay attention to the depths of dark politics, of deep politics. Jim provides the opportunity.

Barr McClellan

New York, New York

July 2013

PROLOGUE

People, despite their wealth, do not endure; they are like the beasts that perish.

—Psalm 49:12, New International Version (NIV)

LBJ’s Chicanery Revealed

At the LBJ Ranch near Johnson City, Texas, before dawn on 19 February 1961, Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) meets with Ed Clark, his loyal lawyer and fixer, a man who has handled many problems in Johnson’s career. Ed Clark is the only man LBJ trusts completely. They drink coffee amid hunting trophies on the walls and on the furniture of the room. Lyndon looks outside, pondering the heavily overcast sky and heavy fog; a hard rain pelts the metal roof and rattles against the windows of the office. Lyndon Baines Johnson, fifty-three, has recently been elected Vice President of the United States. At six-foot-four-inch tall and weighing 225 pounds, Johnson is an imposing man. Dressed in casual khaki pants, scuffed cowboy boots, and an open-collared flannel shirt, he sprawls in his office chair behind an ornate oversized desk, matching his oversized body, oversized ego, and oversized ambitions.

Johnson holds a telephone receiver next to his elephantine left ear while he clutches a large cup of coffee, with LBJ emblazoned on both sides in the other hand, his large size 13 cowboy boots propped up on the desk. He is spending a week at his ranch near Johnson City, Texas, where he grew up as the son of a Texas State senator Sam Johnson.¹ The family lived in poverty, giving the young, ambitious man a feeling of powerlessness Lyndon hated so much that greed and a lust for power would drive him his entire life. When Lyndon was a small child, born into a political family, his paternal grandfather predicted he would become a United States Senator before he reached age forty. It was during his formative years that Lyndon developed his political ambitions. His father had held office in the Texas legislature for twelve years, and tales of political exploits were in abundant supply when Lyndon’s father, family, and friends would gather at the kitchen table. Instead of going to bed at night, Lyndon often listened to tales of political chicanery by hiding under the kitchen table.² At the age of twelve, he told his playmates they were looking at a future President of the United States.³ When he was at Southwest Texas State Teachers College in San Marcos, he stole his first student council election by packing the room not only with his eligible supporters but also with an ineligible voter, and he won by one vote.⁴

Beginning his career in politics as an administrative aide to a congressman, he manipulated the election for presiding officer of the little congress, an organization of administrative aides, by packing the room with elevator operators, mailmen, and policemen who were technically allowed to vote, but never had voted before.⁵ Thus he stole his second election, and this feat made him look like a political genius, which many grudgingly conceded throughout his ascendancy to the Presidency. In 1937, two years after being appointed director of the National Youth Administration⁶ by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he launched his first successful campaign for Congress.⁷ After several terms in the House of Representatives, in 1948, Johnson won his United States Senate seat by eighty-seven votes in a fraudulent ballot-stuffing and vote-buying scheme.⁸ This third stolen election earned him the nickname of Landslide Lyndon.⁹ Ed Clark fixed what became known in Texas history as the box 13 scandal.¹⁰ LBJ knows that there are people who seek to thwart his ambition to be President. He will defeat their schemes, no matter what the cost.

There is a different side to Lyndon Johnson about which most people are unaware. He is a self-absorbed, self-indulgent, narcissistic coward. Inwardly, he is the same tall, skinny boy who, when confronted with the possibility of a fistfight with another college boy over a girl, lay on his back kicking, preferring to use his shoes instead of his fists.¹¹ While outwardly a ruthless bully, inwardly he is given to worry, self-pity, and self-doubt. This is the paradox of Lyndon Johnson. Like a Greek tragedy, his life will play out between these characteristics until ultimately they will destroy him.

Johnson went through some frustrating, lean years during his time as a congressman, but he met Sam Rayburn, long-time Texan speaker of the House of Representatives, and so cultivated him that he became a favorite and protégé of the old man. Rayburn helped him confront John Kennedy with the possibility of an exposure of the fact that JFK had Addison’s disease, a disease of the adrenal glands that might become fatal. This threat was used to blackmail LBJ onto the ticket as the nominee for vice president with JFK in 1960. This misuse of information about JFK’s health earned him the everlasting hatred of JFK’s brother, Robert, who was JFK’s campaign manager.¹² Upon receiving JFK’s offer of the Vice Presidency, LBJ, much to JFK’s surprise, accepted. When RFK received the news immediately upon JFK’s return to his suite, RFK exclaimed, My God, what do we do now? RFK was the opposite of LBJ in every way: RFK, a staunch Roman Catholic, was a moralist, while LBJ was an antinomian, without moral restraint in every way; LBJ was a six foot four lumbering ox of a man, while RFK was five foot eight, a hardened, scrappy fighter, and hater if he believed you were betraying the public trust; RFK believed in honesty and truthfulness; LBJ’s history included college nicknames such as Lyin’ Lyndon and "Bullshit Johnson, later shortened in college to Bull.

Lyndon also met a beautiful young redhead named Madeleine Duncan in 1948, who became his longtime lover, and the product of that union was Steven Brown. Lyndon’s lawyer Ed Clark arranged a bogus marriage to a husband named Brown to keep Lyndon’s paternity quiet. Steven looks very much like his father.¹³ He does not know who his father is, however. Madeleine has told him that he is illegitimate; without the identity of his father to pattern himself after, he does not know who he really is and, like his father, is driven to be somebody. He works during the day as a journalist with the Washington Post and is a student at George Washington University Law School at night, using trust funds left to him by his grandparents.

Madeleine loves her large lover very much, likening his strong, virile physique to that of the statue of Sandow, the father of modern bodybuilding.¹⁴ The fact that they share a son together makes them more like husband and wife than normal paramours—particularly with the financial support Lyndon gives her. They will be lovers for another eight years, until Lyndon retires to his ranch.

Ed Clark is a tall, barrel-chested man in his late forties. Dressed, as always, in a three-piece business suit, he lounges in an overstuffed chair while LBJ talks on the telephone with the two pilots who fly his personal airplane, which is on loan from one of his supporters. Bill Wilson and Fred Bronson, his two pilots, are currently at the airport in Austin where they are monitoring the weather forecast, which includes fog and rain. Despite the impending storm, Johnson, who is long accustomed to the accoutrements of power, will not take no for an answer. He demands that the pilots fly him to Pecos, Texas, where he has planned a meeting with Billie Sol Estes. LBJ wants to talk over his plans with Estes to squelch a federal investigation into Estes’s dealings, which could reveal Johnson’s silent partnership in some of these enterprises.¹⁵ Such a portent is unacceptable to LBJ and could ruin his life, his only real life—politics. There is even a possibility that he might be impeached and face criminal prosecution and imprisonment. With power and riches abundant all around him, he is a fearful man. The sky is overcast and stormy. LBJ leans back in his chair and pulls the curtain to the side of the window. He sees a steady rain and dense fog lying low on the ranch acreage.

Bill Wilson, LBJ’s chief pilot, says, Mr. Vice President, the weather’s not safe for flyin’; nobody in his right mind would fly in this weather. The visibility’s real low, and there’s thick fog and rain over the whole area.¹⁶

LBJ shouts into the phone, Goddamn it! I gotta leave immediately for a meetin’ in Pecos.

Clark listens intently to LBJ’s conversation with his pilots. He is skilled in the exercise of evil manipulation of both the government and the judiciary in Texas, as well as nationally with LBJ’s ascendancy, but has limited courtroom skills. He is known throughout the state as an unethical and crooked lawyer who has been LBJ’s fixer of political problems since Johnson’s first stolen election to the Senate in 1948. He takes the phone from Johnson, and in his falsetto, lisping voice, Clark says, The Vice President don’t give a flyin’ fuck about your damned fog.¹⁷ Clark listens to their arguments, saying, Then quit your jobs, and we’ll find some pilots who’ll consider it an honor to fly the Vice President anywhere he wants to go.¹⁸

LBJ goes into the restroom adjoining his office and sits on the toilet. Clark listens a minute more, and then slams down the phone. Johnson says, Come on over and sit outside while I talk to you about this damned trip.

Clark goes to the chair outside the restroom reserved for staff members who must sit and talk to LBJ while he relieves himself. LBJ’s bathroom sessions stink to high heaven¹⁹ and sound like a farmyard animal, but all who serve him must suffer the indignity of talking with him in this manner.²⁰ The obsessive-compulsive Johnson must not waste conference time, even with such necessities as a restroom break. Others who serve him think it is a way of humiliating them and reminding them who is boss.²¹

They’re comin’ and gonna be here ’fore too long, says a grimacing Clark.

Good work, Ed-ward! shouts LBJ.

The pilots say the fog is bad, says Clark.

I don’t give a goddamn! LBJ interrupts. What’m I gonna do, Ed-ward? Jack and Bobby are gonna ruin me. This moodiness and self-doubt are two of the most burdensome of Johnson’s personality traits that those who serve him must endure.

Just leave it to me, and in time I’ll cover it up, Clark says, holding his nose. Finally, Clark can stand it no longer and retreats to the exit door by LBJ’s desk and yells, Goddamn it, Lyndon, I’m not gonna sit outside your bathroom door while you take a crap one more time!

Whatsamatter? LBJ asks.

Hell, your subordinates may put up with that bullshit, but it’s damned demeanin’! I’m your lawyer, not a subordinate, and you can either raise your voice or wait until you’re through. I’m not puttin’ up with it one more damn time! Billie Sol Estes and all of LBJ’s subordinates have also complained of this habit of LBJ’s as well and the strong odor LBJ produced.

Meanwhile, in Austin, the pilots grimly contemplate a flight they know they should not be undertaking. The two young pilots, both in their thirties, dressed in their flight suits, look at each other in alarm. Bill Wilson hangs up the telephone. Shaking his head, he says, Clark says fly out there anyway. We’ve got the choice of flying or resigning our jobs. I guess we’ll fly, but it’s suicidal. Knowing they are taking their lives in their own hands, they call their wives and inform them they have orders to fly to the ranch.

Bill says to his wife, Honey, LBJ says fly anyway. I really don’t think we should. I’d quit, but we’ve got to pay the mortgage on the house. Maybe it’ll clear up enough to find the airstrip when we get there. Pray for me, Sandy.

His wife on the other end of the line says, I will, honey. I love you, Bill. Be careful.

Fred Johnson calls his wife, Meg, saying, Meg, he says it’s a go; I hate it, but we’ve got to go or resign. I can’t do that. We don’t have another job lined up.

Meg replies, Take it easy and be careful. We’ll be waiting here when you come home. We love you.

I love you too. Pray for us. He chokes up, fighting back tears.

The pilots climb into LBJ’s borrowed aircraft, go through their check-off list, rev up the engines, increase their air speed, and the plane lifts off the runway into the fog. They fly toward the ranch. The flight consumes more time than usual, for they are flying slowly, checking and rechecking their route. In the area of what they think is the LBJ ranch, they look for the airstrip in vain.

The fog’s so thick I can’t make out the hills around the ranch. Let’s fly low and hope we can see more, Bill says. On one low-flying pass, trying visually to identify the outline of the ranch’s airstrip, they see a hill appearing before them with a sharp upward slope. Desperately Bill yanks back on the controls and opens the throttle, giving the aircraft as much lift and power as possible. Fred clutches the armrests looking on with a facial expression in petrified fear.

"Oh shit! Bill cries as the nose of the aircraft crashes into the hill and the aircraft cartwheels over and over on the hillside. The impact is so violent that both pilots die instantly, casualties of Johnson’s lack of concern for anyone but himself.

After an extensive search, the authorities find the men’s bodies and what is left of the plane in the deep brush of the Hill Country of Texas.²² LBJ visits the crash site, expressing his sorrow to the widows and looking deeply disturbed.²³ But the source of his disturbance is still the Estes investigation. The insurance company negotiates a cash settlement with the pilots’ widows, and they take it rather than risk their children’s future in litigation for more. Eventually, they are summoned to a meeting to sign settlement papers. The lawyers for the widows and the lawyers for the insurance company meet in their conference room. The widows sign the documents tearfully, and hand them to their lawyers. The insurance company’s lawyer hands checks to the widows while they stifle their tears, blow their noses, and wipe their eyes.

We know that there is no amount of money that will compensate you for the loss of your husbands, but this is the amount that the policy calls for, and this is all the insurance company can pay. The widows nod and leave with their lawyers.

Johnson calls the lawyer representing him. I want the records of the flight and the settlement sealed.²⁴

Yes, sir, Mr. Vice President. It will be done, his lawyer complies.

LBJ Plans to Stop Department of Agriculture

to Declare Estes’s Allotment Scheme Illegal

LBJ immediately makes plans to see Estes in Abilene using a military aircraft, to make sure that he keeps the investigation of Estes under wraps.

Two days later, LBJ flies on a military plane to Abilene to talk with Estes. The plane runs into a ditch because the runway is too short for such a large airplane. The incident requires that a report be filed with the Federal Aviation Administration. This fact will come back to haunt him when his opponents use it against him.²⁵

While a crew gets the plane back on the runway, LBJ and Estes discuss Henry Marshall’s investigation into Estes’s cotton allotment scheme, which consists of Estes’s obtaining title to condemned land and transferring the cotton allotment to more productive land, later made illegal by the US Department of Agriculture. Billie Sol Estes, the king of Wheeler-Dealers, is a paunchy, humble-looking man in a rumpled suit and shirt with an open collar. He stands five foot ten tall, has jet-black wavy hair, and wears black horn-rimmed glasses. His American Indian heritage gives him the build of Geronimo. His normally optimistic countenance shows extreme worry at the moment.

Billie, I’ve told Cliff Carter to get the word to that damn Marshall that we’ll put him in a cushy position in Washington, pay him a nice salary, and enough cash on the side to make him richer’n ten feet up a bull’s ass if he’ll just shut his damned mouth. If he won’t, we’ll get rid of the son of a bitch. Estes, always subservient in the presence of his benefactor, nods affirmatively. He fears that if LBJ can get rid of Marshall, he can get rid of him too.²⁶

Johnson says, "I’ve ordered Ed Clark and Cliff Carter to solve