Reed isn't the first "minister" who defrauded a whole bunch of people. Others come to mind like Jim Bakker. But way back in my memory was Billy Sol Estes. Billy Sol was an elder and lay preacher for the Church of Christ if I remember correctly. For those who don't want to spend several hours looking through web pages, here are a few chunks I picked up starting from Billy.. Not a lot from the early 60s is webbed. Billy Sol was a buddy of LBJ, and there are claimed connections to the Kennedy assassination.. If you read the last one though, I just about guarantee you will be creeped out. It helps to know that J. Edgar Hoover, former head of the FBI was gay and organized crime knew it. They essentially had veto power over the FBI for about 40 years--somewhat the way scientology seems to have now. Bad as things are today (and remember that I am speaking as a exile in Canada from human rights abuses in the States) they may have been even more corrupt in the not so distant past. Keith Henson http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back_issues/32nd_Issue/jfk_texas.html Billy Sol Estes amassed a $200 million dollar empire on grain storage contracts and cotton payments [Inflation from then to now must be a factor of ten. This would make Slatkin look like a small time operator. HKH] http://www.pecos.net/news/arch2001/011201p.htm In the early 1960's Pecos had a farming boom going for it with a 58 percent increase in population. We also had a nationally known individual named Billy Sol Estes. Mr. Estes made the May 25, 1962 cover of Time magazine. He was not popular locally as he was defeated in his bid for Pecos School Board by a write-in. The local paper, The Pecos Independent and Enterprise, openly opposed Mr. Estes and so he started his own paper, The Pecos Intelligence. The Independent's city editor, Oscar Griffin, became interested in talk about town of easy money going to farmers and he checked on the fertilizer tank chattel mortgages filed in the Clerk's office. He calculated that if the tanks were lined up end to end, they would reach from Pecos to Balmorhea. This didn't sit well with the finance companies and the FBI arrested Mr. Estes March 29, 1962. This split the town, as some thought that Mr. Estes should have been left alone and he would have paid the mortgages and he was helping the economy. Others thought that he should have been arrested for dishonest dealings. This type problem in a small town does not help either side so that is when Louis Roberson and Barney Hubbs decided that a community project would unite the town and that is when the Museum started. www.texasmonthly.com/mag/1999/dec/conman.php Con Man of the Century by Joe Nick Patoski After he was run out of Kansas for performing a procedure that involved implanting goat glands in men's testicles as a way to increase sexual virility, John R. "Doc" Brinkley came to South Texas in 1933 and set up shop in Del Rio's Roswell Hotel. Across the river in Villa Acuņa he promoted the implant and other medical "miracles" on XER, a 500,000-watt radio station that broadcast his message to most of North America. Hounded by controversy, he moved his operations to Arkansas five years later. Runner-up: Billy Sol Estes, who became a confidant of Texas power brokers despite borrowing money against nonexistent fertilizer tanks. http://www.crimelibrary.com/assassins/jfk/8.htm Lyndon Johnson by November 1963 was a man living close to the edge. Corrupted not only by his ties to organized crime, but also by his involvement with two men whose law breaking threatened his very existence. A neighbor and long-time friend, Billy Sol Estes, had been in deep trouble since 1961 through his connection in what was known as "the most gigantic swindle and scandal in the history of Texas." It evolved around the extortion of millions of taxpayers dollars defrauded through bogus cotton allotment schemes and subsidies payable on fictitious machinery grants. It was alleged that Johnson was implicated with Estes in his scams. http://www.truthmagazine.com/archives/volume7/TM007109.html Billie Sol Estes Hance H. Graves Cleveland, Ohio Did the name above attract your attention? It did in Cleveland, Ohio on January 10, 1963. Many people, especially members of the Lord's church, were surprised when news reports on radio and TV said "Billie Sol Estes, convicted swindler" would be speaking at the Addison Road church of Christ concerning mission work in Nigeria. Mr. Estes, of all people, chose to paraphrase the words of Solomon ("these material things in life are only vanity") and the words of James ("That our life is but a vapor"), trying to persuade his audience to employ so-called "church cooperation" in spreading the gospel. Everyone was encouraged to pool their money toward this cause. We have no way of knowing the damage this incident has caused the church. The Addison Road preacher, J. S. Winston, took the liberty to speak for the church universal in saying that "The church holds no ill-will toward Mr. Estes. Regardless of what he has done to the government, he has done a lot for the church and is a dedicated servant of the Lord." Is this anything short of Catholicism's doctrine that the end justifies the means? Now if this man has not brought reproach on the church, I cannot think of much else he could do that would. According to the news reports he was an elder in his home congregation, but an elder is to be "of good report" within and without (1 Tim. 3:7). 1 Peter 4:15 reads, "But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as an evil doer or as a busybody in other men's matters." Mr. Estes, according to reports and the law enforcement agencies of our country, has violated part, if not all of the things mentioned in this verse. Brother Winston made it sound as if he was an outstanding member of the Lord's body. To hear such vindication from a gospel preacher is quite odd, and especially to hear such defended before motion picture cameras, TV cameras and news reporters. The TV stations had a special news summary concerning his speaking engagement in Cleveland. The news reporters summed up by saying, "Church man or Swindler?", leaving it for the TV viewers to judge. The first I heard about Mr. Estes coming to Cleveland was from a Baptist friend of mine. Another brother said a Catholic broke the news to him. Others stated that neighbors called them about the news-making event. It is distressing to hear brethren make the church appear to be a place for underworld refugees, and to have outsiders also to level such a charge. These Cleveland brethren made a hero out of Mr. Estes. In the Berea, Ohio newspaper, Mr. Estes was quoted as saying, "My God has justified me and that's all that counts." Let us hope and pray that He has. Truth Magazine VII: 8, pp. 5a May 1963
Billie Sol Estes Hance H. Graves Cleveland, Ohio Did the name above attract your attention? It did in Cleveland, Ohio on January 10, 1963. Many people, especially members of the Lord's church, were surprised when news reports on radio and TV said "Billie Sol Estes, convicted swindler" would be speaking at the Addison Road church of Christ concerning mission work in Nigeria. Mr. Estes, of all people, chose to paraphrase the words of Solomon ("these material things in life are only vanity") and the words of James ("That our life is but a vapor"), trying to persuade his audience to employ so-called "church cooperation" in spreading the gospel. Everyone was encouraged to pool their money toward this cause. We have no way of knowing the damage this incident has caused the church. The Addison Road preacher, J. S. Winston, took the liberty to speak for the church universal in saying that "The church holds no ill-will toward Mr. Estes. Regardless of what he has done to the government, he has done a lot for the church and is a dedicated servant of the Lord." Is this anything short of Catholicism's doctrine that the end justifies the means? Now if this man has not brought reproach on the church, I cannot think of much else he could do that would. According to the news reports he was an elder in his home congregation, but an elder is to be "of good report" within and without (1 Tim. 3:7). 1 Peter 4:15 reads, "But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as an evil doer or as a busybody in other men's matters." Mr. Estes, according to reports and the law enforcement agencies of our country, has violated part, if not all of the things mentioned in this verse. Brother Winston made it sound as if he was an outstanding member of the Lord's body. To hear such vindication from a gospel preacher is quite odd, and especially to hear such defended before motion picture cameras, TV cameras and news reporters. The TV stations had a special news summary concerning his speaking engagement in Cleveland. The news reporters summed up by saying, "Church man or Swindler?", leaving it for the TV viewers to judge. The first I heard about Mr. Estes coming to Cleveland was from a Baptist friend of mine. Another brother said a Catholic broke the news to him. Others stated that neighbors called them about the news-making event. It is distressing to hear brethren make the church appear to be a place for underworld refugees, and to have outsiders also to level such a charge. These Cleveland brethren made a hero out of Mr. Estes. In the Berea, Ohio newspaper, Mr. Estes was quoted as saying, "My God has justified me and that's all that counts." Let us hope and pray that He has. Truth Magazine VII: 8, pp. 5a May 1963 http://www.ennuimagazine.com/politics/jfk.html Assassinations, Revisited: JFK by Alan Kent In early 1963, President Kennedy had reason to be optomistic on several fronts. The peaceful resolution of the Cuban missile crisis in October, 1962 had been followed by a dramatic lessening of international tensions. A valuable line of communication had been opened between Kennedy and Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev, which would lead to the signing of a nuclear test-ban treaty with the Soviet Union in August. Domestically, the economy was booming, spurred by the Kennedy tax cuts of 1962. The President's civil rights agenda was gaining ground, albeit slowly. Kennedy's popularity ratings were consistantly over 60% at the time, and early polls showed him easily defeating any Republican challenger in the 1964 election. While the President's future looked bright, his Vice-president was close to political extinction in 1963. Lyndon Johnson was embroiled in a series of scandals that threatened to permanently derail his lifelong ambition to become President. Johnson's troubles began in 1962, when his Texas friend and backer Billy Sol Estes was indicted on fraud charges. Estes had built a financial empire based largely on complex manipulation of federally-subsidized farm programs. He had helped finance Johnson's electoral campaigns and, as he would reveal years later, had contributed heavily to a large "slush fund" that the Vice-president was accumulating. In 1961, Estes' activities were being examined by an Agriculture Dept. investigator named Henry Marshall. On June 3, 1961, Marshall was found dead at his ranch in Franklin, Texas, a victim of five gunshot wounds and carbon monoxide poisoning. A quick verdict of suicide was later overturned. Henry Marshall, described by Agriculture Secretary Orville Freeman as the only man who could provide some of the answers to questions about Estes' involvement in the fraudulant use of government cotton allotments, had been murdered. Subsequent to Marshall's death, several other potential witnesses to Billy Sol's financial manipulations, including his accountant, would die of carbon monoxide poisoning. After becoming President, Johnson would issue an order halting all federal investigation into the Estes matter. Estes would, however, do time on a state charge of defrauding farmers. Of even more pressing concern to Johnson in 1963 was the Senate Rules Committee investigation of the activities of Johnson protege Bobby Baker. While working for Johnson as Secretary to the Senate Majority Leader, Baker had fronted for syndicate gamblers in profitable investments, used his connections to Johnson in numerous schemes to receive kickbacks for political services rendered, and was part of an organized effort to solicit prostitutes for politicians for blackmail purposes. Former Attorney General Richard Kleindienst once summarized the Baker-Johnson relationship: "Lyndon Johnson was involved with Bobby Baker up to his elbows." Yet another scandal in which Johnson was being implicated involved the awarding of a $7 billion defense contract for the development of the TFX fighter plane to the General Dynamics plant in Ft. Worth, TX. On Nov.22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated, a closed session of the Senate Rules Committee heard sworn testimony from a Bobby Baker associate, Don Reynolds. Reynolds told the committee of a "big lobbyists sex party" in New York, at which he saw a suitcase filled with money. Baker told him that the money was a $100,000 payoff that was headed to Lyndon Johnson for his role in securing the Ft. Worth TFX contract. His testimony was broken off by the news that the President had been shot in Dallas. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who loathed Johnson and wanted him dropped from the ticket in 1964, was strongly pushing investigation into all of these cases. In addition, according to a Kennedy aide, the Attorney General possessed a thick file on Johnson's 1950's ties to mobster Carlos Marcello. Johnson biographer Robert Caro wrote of him: "For years, men came into Lyndon Johnson's office and handed him envelopes stuffed with cash. They didn't stop coming even when the office in which he sat was the office of the Vice-president of the United States." In late 1963, Johnson and the financial and political alliances that had backed him were seriously threatened. Only his ascension to the Presidency could stop these investigations. In 1984, under a grant of immunity, Billy Sol Estes testified in front of a Texas grand jury that the death of Henry Marshall had been ordered by then-Vice President Lyndon Johnson. He claimed that the order was transmitted by Johnson aide Cliff Carter to a man named Malcolm "Mac" Wallace, who committed the crime. Wallace, who was found guilty of murder in a 1951 Texas slaying, had been introduced to Johnson by Carter in the late 1940's, had dated Lyndon's sister Josefa, and had done work for Johnson's Congressional staff at that time. Estes would also claim that Wallace was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy. Since the men implicated by Estes were deceased at the time he spoke out, his accusations were generally dismissed as unprovable and unlikely. Recently, however, a discovery of historic importance was made. On the day of the assassination, several fingerprints were lifted by Dallas police from the cardboard boxes that comprised the "sniper's nest" on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building. Some prints were found to belong to the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, which was not surprising, inasmuch as he was employed there. Others were matched to Dallas policemen who had examined the scene. One print could not be matched to any Book Depository employee or any investigating police officer. On March 12, 1998, a match was made by a fingerprint expert with several decades of experience. The print had been left by Mac Wallace. The assassination of President Kennedy was a blow which would send this country careening into the horrors of the Vietnam war. We now know that Kennedy, who had adamantly resisted powerful pressure to escalate in Vietnam by introducing American combat troops, had ordered the implementation of a withdrawl plan which would have removed American advisors from South Vietnam by 1965. The corrupt politico-economic system that Lyndon Johnson had mastered as few others ever have, would continue to thrive. By the time he became President, Johnson was worth an estimated $20,000,000, not an insubstantial sum for a life of public service... There have been nearly 1,000 books written about the Kennedy assassination. Many are worthless; most are now obsolete. The most comprehensive look at all facets of the crime is Noel Twyman's "Bloody Treason." "Deep Politics" by Peter Dale Scott is a superb analysis of the roots of the system that felled the President, a system that is alive and well today. The full story of the Presidents' murder is extraordinarily complex; far more so than a short essay can reveal. However, if one knew nothing about the crime but the above, one would know that the system we have lived under for over 200 years has sustained wounds that cut to its core. (There is more detail about Mac Wallace, the murder he is known to have committed, and fingerprint and related issues here: http://home.earthlink.net/~sixthfloor/prints2.htm here http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/03/JA/DR/.dr14.html and here: http://www.gamblingmagazine.com/articles/53/53-03.htm HKH]