en are not perfect creatures. It's the nature of the beast. Presidents are no exception. Before they become the most powerful man in the world, they climb into their trousers and tie their shoes the same way we do—one leg and one foot at a time. While most of this century's leaders came from reasonable affluence, a few of them—like Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan or Clinton—could have been your neighbors growing up. They didn't come from money. None had expectations of greatness. Circumstance was their only guide through their early years, and circumstance placed them in the path of greatness.

Before Bill and Hillary Clinton moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the American people never imagined they could be sufficiently buffaloed by any politician to vote a crook into the White House. Richard Milhous Nixon—who stoutly protested that he was not a crook—had serious ethics problems but whose criminal complicity was limited to his participation in the coverup of the burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters by key members of his re-election team. Nixon's criminality was minuscule compared to the Clintons. Nixon's ethic lapse was bad enough to warrant his impeachment and removal from office—but only because the Democrats were in control of both Houses of Congress. Had Nixon not resigned at the urging of George H.W. Bush (who also masterminded the selection of House Minority Leader Gerald Ford as America's first appointed Vice President—who apparently assured Bush that he would pardon Nixon if he was forced to step down—its obvious from hindsight that Nixon would have been the first sitting president removed from office had he not resigned.

Hindsight also supports the conjecture that had President John F. Kennedy not been assassinated in Dallas, Texas on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, the headlines in the nation's newspapers on Monday, Nov. 25, 1963 most likely would have concerned efforts to force the resignation of the Vice President, talk about the possible impeachment of Johnson, or Johnson's decision not to be on the ticket in 1964.

Those headlines failed to materialize not because Sen. John McClellan [D-AR], the powerful Chairman of the Permanent Intelligence Committee or Sen. B. Everett Jordan [D-NC] (who conducted the secret inquiry of the conduct of the Vice President on Nov. 22 through the Senate Rules Committee which he chaired) were close friends who shielded him; but, rather, because the Vice President became the President of the United States that same day. The Senate Rules Committee, which had more than enough evidence to successfully impeach Johnson, suspended its investigation for a year. When the investigation reconvened in 1965, none of the witnesses who were willing to incriminate a vice president would testify against LBJ who was now the sitting President of the United States. The investigation of Johnson began after J. Edgar Hoover leaked information about Bobby Baker and his Capitol Hill whore house to Sen. John Williams [R-DE] who initiated an investigation of Baker and another key LBJ aide, Walter Jenkins—the father of six children—who was caught having sex with a retired soldier at the YMCA in Washington. Williams' investigations earned him the nickname "Lonewolf Investigator." Williams' investigation of Baker's led to the aide's resignation on Oct. 9, 1963. At that point, McClellan and Jordan—both friends of LBJ—took them over.

Had Lyndon B. Johnson been a Republican his dirty laundry—like Spiro Agnew's—would have made serialized headlines in the New York Times and Washington Post until one man's scandals tarnished the entire party. That was the fear of the Democrats in December, 1963. They were afraid LBJ's mob connections through Bobby Baker—and Johnson's greed—would personally implicate him in a myriad of crimes with Baker, Estes and several mob figures, least of which was the strange "suicide" of Truman Agriculture Dept. investigator Henry Marshall (who was found dead on June 3, 1961—shot five times with a bolt action rifle) and the murder of John Douglas Kinser (who was slain by Malcom "Mac: Wallace to keep Kinser from talking about an affair he and Wallace were having with LBJ's sister, Josefa). A Texas jury found Wallace guilty. Eleven jurors voted for the death penalty. One held out for life in prison. The judge overruled the jury and sentenced Wallace to five years—on probation. He walked out of the courtroom a free man. Several reporters at the time believed LBJ put Wallace up to killing Kinser. Johnson's lawyer, John Cofer, defended Wallace.

The Beginning

In an April 10, 1937 special election to replace deceased Texas 10th Congressional District Rep. James P. Buchanan, former elevator operator and two-semester school teacher—and brand new New Dealer—Lyndon Johnson agreed to become FDR's man in Texas in exchange for help to win Buchanan's congressional seat. With a handful of Democrat Party money, help from his growing circle of political friends in Jim Welles and Duvall counties, and an extra push from the While House, Johnson won.

And when Sen. Wilbur Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel decided not to seek reelection in 1948, Johnson threw his 10-gallon hat into the ring. Also in the July 24 primary race was Texas Gov. Coke R. Stevenson and a handful of lesser known State politicians. When the ballots were counted, Stevenson led Johnson 477,077 to 405,617. However, because Coke Stevenson did not have a 50.1% majority of all the votes cast, a two-man run-off vote was set for Aug. 28. When the result of the tallies came in, Stevenson was the winner of the US Senate seat by a margin of 113 votes. Johnson's people called Duvall County Judge George Parr who felt he could find the votes they needed in Alice, Texas in adjacent Jim Welles County. (Parr headed the political machine in Duvall County, Texas and is believed to have ordered the deaths of several of his political enemies. He was convicted of tax evasion in 1936, but was pardoned by President Truman. He became LBJ's "go-to-guy" when dirty work needed to be done.. Parr single-handedly delivered the 1948 Senate victory to LBJ.) (Author's note: Remember Alice, Texas —and the import of the cast of players there.)

Magically, a recount found an additional 202 Johnson votes in Jim Welles County Precinct 13—all neatly recorded in blue ink even though all of the ballots cast during the election were recorded in black ink. Johnson was now in the lead—by 87 votes. By the time Duvall County was recounted, Johnson picked up an additional 4,622 votes. Thirty-eight uncounted "votes" favoring Coke Stevenson in what was reminescent of Al Gore's 2000 recount in Democratic strongholds in Florida, were also found. Seeing theft even with his eyes closed, Stevenson attempted to confiscate the voting records as evidence of vote tampering by Johnson. Johnson asked Judge Roy Archer in Austin to issue an injunction and declare him the winner of the primary. Archer did.

Had Archer delayed the order for another hour or two, the Jim Welles County officials would have thrown out Box 13 and restored Stevenson's lead. As Stevenson headed to the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals for an injunction barring the State from declaring Johnson the winner, Johnson called Justice Hugo Black of the US Supreme Court—who actually had no constitutional jurisdiction over a State primary election. On Sept. 29, 1948, Black issued an order killing the 5th Circuit's injunction. Johnson won. Judge T. Whitfield Davidson of the 5th Circuit observed that the US Supreme Court did not have legal standing since this was not a dispute in a general election, but in a State primary. "The US Supreme Court," he said, "altered my opinion, but it hasn't changed my mind," adding that Black's ruling was "...probably unlawful." As the court of last resort, when the Supreme Court speaks, no court can refute them. Stevenson took the defeat bitterly because he knew the election was stolen by Johnson's cronies in Alice, Texas. He retired from public life and died on June 28, 1975.

Election theft is no different than any other form of thievery. Those who devise illegal schemes to steal votes should pay a stiff price. Texas Gov. Dan Moody—no friend of Johnson's—many times after the 1948 election theft, said that "...if the District Attorney here had done his duty, Lyndon Johnson would now be in the penitentiary instead of the United States Senate." Stealing is stealing. And the theft of votes robs not only the candidate who loses them, it robs of the voters of their right to select those they wish to represent them. There is no more serious crime in the nation. Those who do it should spend the rest of their lives in prison without any chance for parole or pardon—not even from a sitting President.

Rise to power

When Lyndon Baines Johnson ran for the US House of Representatives in 1937 he was still an inch from poverty. The elevator operator turned school teacher turned errand boy for the Democrat Party Machine was born in a small farmhouse in the poor area along the Pedemales River in Stonewall, Texas. While his father served five terms in the Texas legislature and was a close friend of Congressman Sam Rayburn, Sam Early Johnson never tried to enrich himself at the expense of the taxpayers. LBJ, who wanted historians to paint him in the image of FDR or Thomas Jefferson more closely resembles William Jefferson [D-LA] who was caught in the summer of 2006 with a freezer full of bribe money.

Lyndon Johnson, like Bill and Hillary Clinton and most career civil "servants" who pursue politics as a vocation, earn comfortable middle income paychecks—but not enough to make them multimillionaires. That type of "income" generation comes only from using one's high office for personal gain. And, that's against the law. Ask any of the myriad of LBJ historians and, without diverting their eyes downward (a sign of lying), they will tell you the Johnson family wealth came from money left to Claudia Alta (Lady Bird) Johnson by her mother (Minnie Pattillo Taylor)—and her sharp business acumen to turn a dime into a dollar. (The White House version of Claudia Taylor's childhood suggested that she came from wealth, and that she lived in a sprawling country mansion.)

It's a convenient story. But its not true. While the Taylor home was clean and well-maintained, it was just a big old brick house on the wrong side of the tracks. When Lyndon married Claudia on Nov. 17, 1934, her father, Tom Taylor, was the shopkeeper of a small general store in Karnack, in East Texas. The business was actually owned by the estate of Claudia's mother who died on Sept. 6, 1918. In addition to the store that provided Lady Bird's father with a living, Minnie owned just shy of 12 thousand acres of land in Harrison County. In her will, she left everything to her three children. Taylor did not possess the liquidity to buy the store and its inventory, which was valued at around $8,625.00. The Pattillo land, which Minnie inherited from her parents, was worth about $87 thousand. Claudia's youngest brother, Antonio—who suffered from a physical handicap, received $26,000 as his share of the Pattillo "fortune" shortly after his mother's death. Tom, Jr., the eldest of the three children received $40,500 as his share of the estate in 1924, leaving $21,000 for Claudia.

On Nov. 6, 1936 Tom Taylor signed a note, agreeing to pay Claudia her inheritance in three installments of $7,000 per year. Hardly a fortune. When Johnson ran for Congress the following year, he reported to one of his biographers that he borrowed $10 thousand from Lady Bird who took the money out of her "inheritance." Only, at the time, Johnson's wife had not received the first penny from her father. And, in fact, she never did.

Instead, Congressman Johnson struck a deal with a munitions company to build an ordnance plant in Texas—on land that would be donated to them by the federal government. The land Johnson suggested was owned by the estate of Minnie Pattillo. The Johnsons quitclaimed Claudia's inheritance (for propriety's sake). Nine days after quitclaiming her inheritance, Tom Taylor sold 2,887.6 acres of land to the federal government for $70 thousand. With an invisible slippery-tongued Texas snake oil salesman at the helm, the LBJ Company was launched. And the fairy tale legend of Lady Bird's financial prowness was born.

According to the LBJ family legend, in 1943 Lady Bird invested part of her inheritance—$15.5 thousand—in a small Austin radio station that was losing money. She bought the station and turned it. In reality, the station was owned by Dr. James G. Ulmer. Ulmer applied and received an FCC permit to build and operate station KTBC in Austin. Once he got KTBC on the air, he discovered that getting a revenue stream sufficient to keep the station solvent was more than he banked on. Over-extended and hard-pressed for cash, Ulmer received an attractive offer to sell KTBC and asked former US Senator Alvin Wirtz—a close Johnson confidant—to help get FCC approval for the sale. Ulmer was broke. His two partners in KTBC were also broke. Because they couldn't pay Ulmer the money they owed him, they gave him a note for $15,500.00. Even with Wirtz supposedly pushing the deal, the FCC sat on the application until Ulmer's buyer—who promised to pay $150 thousand for the station—died in Dec., 1942.

That same month Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson suddenly "discovered" the radio station was for sale. The FCC quickly approved the sale of KTBC to the Congressman and his wife in January, 1943. Broke and desperate, Ulmer sold the station to Johnson for $15,500.00. Johnson used his high office to snag the first TV license for KTBC in 1952, KWTX-TV in 1955 and KRGV-TV and KTBC-TV in 1956. Lyndon Johnson leveraged his way to wealth by using the muscle of the FCC to kill legitimate applications for licenses for radio and TV stations. When he launched his own bid for the White House in 1959 Johnson was a millionaire who claimed the "family wealth" came from Lady Bird's inheritance.

The Rise of "Little Lyndon"

Bobby Baker, the former page boy turned in-between "go-to" guy for unscrupulous people wore the official title as secretary and political adviser to Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson. To the rank and file members of the Senate he was known as "Little Lyndon." When International Hotels wanted to open a casino in the Dominican Republic in the early 1950s as the political situation in Cuba heated up, Baker arranged for Ed Levison, an associate of mobsters Meyer Lansky and Sam Giancana to become a partner in the deal. In 1960 Johnson—through Baker—was still doing business with the mob which was establishing an offshore gambling paradise in the Caribbean. In fact, most of the deals put together by Baker carried the stench of the crime syndicate or mobster money.

In 1962 Baker—still the front man for LBJ's nefarious moneymaking schemes and congressional pimp for powerful Congressmen, Senators and even more powerful corporate leaders reportedly linked President John F. Kennedy up with Ellen Romesch, a regular "escort" at the Quorum Club—Baker's private club in the Carroll Arms Hotel on Capitol Hill. In his own memoirs, Baker noted that Kennedy sent him word later that Romesch was the best he ever had. The affair between Kennedy and Romesch continued for quite some time. J. Edgar Hoover uncovered Kennedy's romance with Romesch—who was married to a West German Air Force sergeant who was assigned to the West German military mission in Washington. Ellen Romesch, who was a member of the Communist Youth from her early teens, was believed by the FBI to be a communist agent. Bobby Kennedy had her quietly deported. As Hoover investigated the Quorum Club, he discovered a litany of famous men lined up at the sexual feeding trough—including not only the President but his brother as well. The three names that were connected to the Kennedys were Romesch, Maria Novtny and Suzy Chang. All of them came from communist countries. Hoover suspected all of them were spies. He fed the story—and Bobby Baker's name—to columnist Drew Pearson who, at the urging of Lyndon Johnson, used the material.

Bobby Baker formed Serv-U-Corporation in partnership with his lobbyist friend Fred Black, and mobsters Levison, Giancana, and Ben Siegelbaum—a close friend of Jimmy Hoffa. Serv-U, which was operated by the mobsters, provided vending machines. The clients of Serv-U were public and private corporations who received government grants—and who were made to feel obligated to provide a small quid pro quo for the gratuity they received from Uncle Sam. LBJ made sure Baker insulated him from direct ties to the mob, even though Johnson—now the Vice President of the United States—profited handsomely from Baker's dealing with them. Because he knew where all the bodies were buried—probably with the eventual exception of Jimmy Hoffa—Baker became a very powerful man in Washington—and, secretly, the target of the Senate Rules Committee. Baker knew just a few too many secrets. A lot of people on Capitol Hill would breathe easier if Baker was gone.

Hoover reported most—but not all—of what he knew about Baker's mob ties to the Attorney General. Armed with ammo he could use against Johnson, Bobby Kennedy launched a full-fledged Department of Justice investigation of the Mafia. He also fed most of what he knew to McClellan and Jordan. So did Hoover—who also confided what he knew about Baker to Johnson. Hoover was a man who covered all bases. Regardless who won this dog fight, Hoover knew he would remain in control of the FBI.

Johnson was convinced that Robert Kennedy told Hoover to tap his phone in 1961 after LBJ agreed to meet with an Israeli leader that JFK refused to see. In Jan. 1963 a friendly Senator told the Vice President that anti-Johnson Senators planned to use Rule 22 to dump him from the ticket in 1964. Johnson confronted the Kennedy brothers who assured him they had no plans to drop him from the ticket. (After the assassination of JFK, Johnson himself fanned as fact that his relationship with Kennedy was rock solid.)

JFK told members of the Democratic leadership that dumping Johnson was "...preposterous on the face of it. We've got to carry Texas in '64—and maybe Georgia." When Sen. George Smathers [D-FL] told JFK that everyone on the Hill was talking about Bobby Kennedy wanting to dump LBJ, JFK responded: "George—you have some intelligence, I presume? Who's Bobby putting on the ticket—himself? I don't want to get licked. Lyndon's going to be my vice president because he helps me."

Yet, on Nov. 19, 1963—three days before JFK went to Dallas—Kennedy told his secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, that he intended to replace LBJ with North Carolina Gov. Terry Sanford as his running mate in 1964. Kennedy believed Sanford could deliver the Southern vote as well as Johnson. But more important, Sanford wasn't carrying the dirty laundry LBJ was toting . Johnson knew if he was dropped from the ticket his political career would be over. Whatever else happened, Johnson intended to be the President of the United States in 1968. His long term career plans did not include being bounced from the ticket in '64.

Kennedy's decision to replace Johnson was based on LBJ's mob ties with several Mafia dons through Baker and Serv-U Corporation. Since Hoover leaked Bobby Baker's ties to the mob to Sen. John Williams, Kennedy knew it was just a matter of time before the GOP connected the dots. Once Johnson was tied to Baker, the GOP would have all of the ammo they would need to kill JFK's reelection The evidence produced by Hoover revealed that Fred Black and Bobby Baker's partner in Serv-U was mob boss Sam Giancana. Companies receiving free money from Uncle Sam were made to feel obligated to use vending machines recommended by Baker—the Vice President's right hand man. Johnson's link to the mob, through Baker, seemed to be significant. As the Senate Rules Committee, using information supplied by Hoover, launched a full-fledged investigation of Baker they also began building a dossier on LBJ. As the scandal broke in the media in the fall of 1963, Bobby Baker, with Johnson's attorney, Abe Fortas at his side, resigned his position believing it would end the problems for his boss—and take the heat off him.

The Alice Factor

The events that transpired in Dallas, Texas at 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 22, 1963 appear to have begun a day earlier in Alice, Texas. The normally quiet, lazy southeast Texas town of 19,000 is nestled between Corpus Christi and Laredo. Alice is about 300 miles south of Dallas, in the middle of a stretch of road from no where to no where. One of Jim Welles County's favorite sons, James Evetts Haley, who knew all of the Alice political machine players in the early years observed in his 1964 book, A Study in Illegitimate Power, what he viewed as an irony of fate.Haley recalled seeing Lee Harvey Oswald in Alice on Nov. 21, 1963. In his book, he wrote: "What a strange coincidence that Lee Harvey Oswald—on his return from Mexico shortly before the Kennedy assassination—detoured from Laredo to stop and spend the night in search of a job at Alice in Jim Welles County before proceeding to Dallas and his world-shocking deed." Haley also authored the book, A Texan Looks at Lyndon in 1964. It was a best seller and, in Texas, only the Bible outsold it. As a journalist, Haley was convinced that Oswald was in Alice on Thursday, Nov. 21. He knew Oswald was job hunting because those he saw Oswald talking to said he was. To my knowledge, there is no written record of whom Oswald spoke to. It's a secret Haley took to his grave in Midland, Texas on Oct. 9, 1985.

There's only one problem with Haley's description and timeline if the events he described in his book as happening in Alice on Nov. 21, 1963—it is at odds with the FBI account of Oswald's last 60 days on Earth. Oswald was in Mexico City in September, 1963, trying to get a visa to return to the Soviet Union. The Soviets declined his visa. Oswald then spoke with a KGB agent in the Cuban Embassy. Dragging their heels, it would be Oct. 18 before the Soviets approved his visa. Oswald returned to the United States on Oct. 3. He traveled to Dallas through Laredo (which means its likely his bus may have had a brief stopover in Alice). If Haley saw Oswald upon his return from Mexico City, it would have been on the October 3rd, not Nov. 21. Haley was a good enough reporter that his recollection of when he saw Oswald was probably correct. If so, the reason for him being in Alice at that time was fabricated since Oswald was still employed at the Texas School Book Depository.

Oswald, who was living with his wife Marina in Irving, Texas, was job hunting on Oct. 3—but not on Nov. 21. Ruth Paine, Marina Oswald's friend, found Oswald a job at the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. Oswald started work there on Oct. 16. During the week, Oswald lived at a rooming house at 1026 N. Beckley Avenue. On Nov. 16, the Dallas Morning News reported that the President would be visiting Dallas on Nov. 22. His motorcade would cut through the heart of Dallas along Main Street—about a block from the Texas School Book Depository. The presidential route was confirmed by newspaper reports on Nov. 19. On Thursday, Nov. 21, FBI reports stated that Oswald returned to Irving. When he left the Paine home where Marina was staying, Oswald left $170 and his wedding ring. Did Oswald also visit Alice, Texas that day? One of his co-workers told the FBI that he drove Oswald to Irving, and back to Dallas, implying they did not go anywhere else. Haley insisted he saw Oswald in Alice on Nov. 21. Alice was a good four hour drive from Irving, meaning the round trip would have taken about eight hours. Why is it important? Because Alice was where the political machine that backed LBJ ran the roost. If Haley was correct and Oswald was in Jim Welles County the day before the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the implication would be staggering.

The secret hearing

Attorney General Robert Kennedy began his investigation of former Senate page Bobby Baker because, as the Vice President's "go-fer" and personal adviser in 1954, Baker earned a government paycheck of $11,205 per year. Yet, working for the veep, Baker managed to amass a net worth of $2,166,886. Johnson believed the Senate investigation was instigated by Kennedy to force him off the '64 ticket. In point of fact, the investigation was initiated by J. Edgar Hoover who tied LBJ to mobsters like Meyer Lansky and Sam Giancano. The Kennedys would have kept the information secret in order to use it to force Johnson off the ticket.

Hoover gave the Attorney General enough evidence to hang Johnson. But, understanding that politics was more important to the Kennedy's than justice, Hoover also handed copies of the files to Sen. John Williams [R-DE]. The files nailed Baker and forced his resignation, giving Johnson the wiggle room he needed to convince Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman John McClellan that he was the victim of Baker's greed. McClellan used the Bobby Baker files to investigate organized crime in what became known as the Valachi Hearings, centering on Sam Giancana and Jimmy Hoffa. As the Valachi Hearings consumed the attention of the media, Sen. B. Everett Jordan, Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee was holding a secret hearing to determine if the conduct of the Vice President of the United States constituted an impeachable offense.

Because of the nature of the allegations, Jordan ordered the meeting room sealed. Once the committee members entered the room, they were not allowed to leave. Nor was anyone allowed to enter the cordoned-off area. No phones were allowed. Nor were any media people allowed to listen to the testimony. Twelve-thirty came and went. Not one soul in the room knew that John F. Kennedy had just been shot in Dallas, Texas and that, within two hours he would be dead—and that the man they were investigating would become the 36th President of the United States.

Had John F. Kennedy not been assassinated that day, it is very likely that Johnson would have been pressured into either resigning his high office before the end of the year, or announcing that he would not be a candidate for the office of Vice President in 1964, allowing JFK to replace him on the ticket with Gov. Terry Sanford without any infighting between the moderate and liberal factions of the Democratic Party. Instead, as Air Force One prepared to bring the body of the nation's 35th president back to the nation's capitol, a new Caesar was being crowned. Johnson, flanked by his wife (on LBJ's right) and a distraught Jackie Kennedy (on his left) is administered the oath of office by Judge Sarah Hughes. When Air Force One landed at Andrews Air Force Base, the 36th President of the United States assumed power.

At that time, Lee Harvey Oswald was in custody. A grief-stricken nation sat glued to their TV sets, waiting for answers to a puzzle that has still not been solved. With the assassination of Oswald by Jack Ruby, the public demanded a speedy but thorough investigation into the death of Kennedy, and Johnson—a man believed by many to be the architect of Kennedy's death in order to guarantee his destiny was now in charge of finding that impartial panel of "experts" to unravel the mystery and identify the mastermind behind Kennedy's assassination.

Johnson asked Chief Justice Earl Warren to head the Commission. Warren refused. The chief justice knew the President wanted a cover-up. Three shots had been fired. It already appeared that only one shot had been fired from the window in the Texas School Book Depository. The other two shots—clearly heard by others at the scene—would evolve into the mysterious bouncing bullet in an attempt to make Oswald appear as the sole gunman. What was Johnson trying to hide? And, why was it so important to conceal the fact there there were at least two gunmen—one in front and one behind the motorcade? Was there a lone assassin? Were there two sets of assassins working together? Was Oswald the killer? Or, was it Cubans? Or, the FBI or CIA? Perhaps the KGB? Or, was the hit arranged by the Mafia—with or without the advise and consent of the Vice President of the United States?

Whatever else happened that day, it is a fact that LBJ wanted Earl Warren heading the commission badly enough to blackmail him into accepting the job. According to former Congressman Richard Russell, after Warren refused the job several times, Johnson called him to the Oval Office and reminded him "...about a little incident in Mexico City..." that Hoover learned about. With that, Russell said, Warren broke down and began to cry, telling LBJ that "...I won't turn you down. I'll do whatever you say."

The Warren Commission concluded that while there were three shots fired, all of the shots were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald. The Commission also concluded there was no evidence of a conspiracy. That was the conclusion Johnson wanted the Commission to reach. He wanted to put the matter to rest. Commission Chairman Earl Warren, and members Gerald Ford, Allen W. Dulles, John J. McCloy, John S. Cooper and Thomas H. Boggs agreed.

But even more important , Lyndon Baines Johnson's partnership with the mob was buried with John Fitzgerald Kennedy. And, on June 5, 1968, the remaining skeletons of that misadventure were buried with the president's brother. Once again, tidying up history, Lyndon Johnson commissioned a panel of men he trusted to "get to the bottom" of Bobby Kennedy's death at the hand of Palestinian born Sirhan Bishara Sirhan. A Christian Palestinian, Sirhan insisted that he killed Kennedy as revenge for US support of Israel. Had Sirhan been a Muslim, his argument would have had merit. As a Coptic Christian, it did not. Kennedy died at 2 a.m. on June 6, 1968—on the 3rd anniversary of the Six Day War. Once again, the facts surrounding the real motives were obscured by the smoke and mirrors of political necessity.