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Speaker 1: All right, before I get started, I want to say

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Speaker 1: thank you to Mark, a Verizon guy from Staten Island

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Speaker 1: who finally got my studio up and running after several

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Speaker 1: weeks of moving into a very historic old house. So

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Speaker 1: thank you Mark, and here we go. We've all heard

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Speaker 1: the phrase, with great power comes great responsibility. Uncle Ben

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Speaker 1: said that to Peter Parker and Spider Man. Right. Well,

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Speaker 1: it turns out it was the basis for political philosophy

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Speaker 1: in Rome, Greece, medieval England, eighteenth century France, and a

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Speaker 1: whole lot of other places, including the US. So why

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Speaker 1: in the heck has there been so much corruption in

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Speaker 1: the world of politics. I'm Patty Steele. When power leads

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Speaker 1: to the abuse of power, that's next on the backstory.

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Speaker 1: The backstory is back. We're all wrapped up in politics

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Speaker 1: these days and it's nerve wracking, right, But it's nothing new.

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Speaker 1: Political and corruption are as old as people's desires for power.

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Speaker 1: Royals living in unimaginable luxury led to the assassination or

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Speaker 1: execution of emperors, kings, and queen's Abuse of power has

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Speaker 1: always been a no no. Even the Bible says, to

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Speaker 1: those to whom much has been given, much will be demanded.

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Speaker 1: Problem is, an awful lot of folks got away with

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Speaker 1: the abuse of that power and didn't have much demanded

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Speaker 1: of them in return. Now Here in the United States,

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Speaker 1: presidents aren't just the heads of state. They also run

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Speaker 1: the entire federal bureaucracy, so they have a huge boatload

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Speaker 1: of people that report to them, and when those people misbehave,

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Speaker 1: the commander in chief takes the heat, whether he was

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Speaker 1: personally involved or not. Andrew Johnson had the unlucky task

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Speaker 1: of taking over the White House following the assassination of

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Speaker 1: America's greatest and most loved President, Abraham Lincoln, but he

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Speaker 1: was known for his abuse of power, infighting amongst his team,

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Speaker 1: and financial shadiness, all of which led to his impeachment.

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Speaker 1: Then there was Ulysses S. Grant, a wildly successful general

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Speaker 1: during the Civil War, but less so as a president,

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Speaker 1: primarily because he was loyal to a fault to the

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Speaker 1: people he brought in to his administration. Not really a

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Speaker 1: bad guy, just not a great manager that included forty

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Speaker 1: members of his family that were given government jobs. There

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Speaker 1: are at least a dozen damaging scandals during Grant's years

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Speaker 1: in office. His brother in law colluded with robber barons

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Speaker 1: Jay Gould and James Fiske to try to corner the

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Speaker 1: gold market. There were bribery scandals involving everything from Native

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Speaker 1: American trading posts to whiskey distillers to the Department of Justice.

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Speaker 1: All of this undermined the important things he did for

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Speaker 1: the country, including advocating for the rights of both African

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Speaker 1: and Native Americans, as well as stabilizing the nation following

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Speaker 1: the war and the disastrous Andrew Johnson years. Now in

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Speaker 1: the twentieth century, we've seen scandals like a member of

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Speaker 1: President Warren Harding's cabinet giving private oil companies the rights

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Speaker 1: to extract oil and gas from federal land in the

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Speaker 1: Teapot Dome scandal. Then we hit the nineteen sixties, where

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Speaker 1: once again we see someone tasked with taking over as

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Speaker 1: commander in chief from a much loved and again assassinated

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Speaker 1: President John F. Kennedy. We're talking about one of America's

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Speaker 1: most complex and controversial presidents, Lyndon Baines Johnson LBJ. While

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Speaker 1: LBJ achieved landmark legislation like the Civil Rights Act, Medicare,

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Speaker 1: and his War on Poverty, there's the whole darker, less

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Speaker 1: talked about side of his political career, corruption, backroom deals,

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Speaker 1: and according to some folks, maybe even murder. It all

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Speaker 1: protected his reputation and rise to power. There are rumors

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Speaker 1: at LBJ, the thirty sixth US President, may have had

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Speaker 1: inconvenient people done away with in order to safeg his

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Speaker 1: political career. It's what happens when power and ambition override

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Speaker 1: ethics and decency. Johnson's rise to power had a rough beginning.

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Speaker 1: Born in rural Texas, as he moved ahead in politics,

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Speaker 1: he was known for his fierce ambition and ruthless approach

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Speaker 1: to getting his way. He had no problem using political favors, intimidation,

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Speaker 1: and arm twisting to get ahead, and by the late

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, LBJ had made a name for himself in Congress.

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Speaker 1: By nineteen sixty one, he was John F. Kennedy's vice president.

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Speaker 1: But before he became vice president, one of his closest

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Speaker 1: friends was a guy named Billy Solestes, a Texas businessman

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Speaker 1: known for shady dealings and scams, and LBJ was right

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Speaker 1: next to him. In the late nineteen fifties and early sixties,

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Speaker 1: Estes was involved in a huge fraud scheme involving federal

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Speaker 1: agricultural subsidies, but he was protected by his deep political

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Speaker 1: connections and including to LBJ, who was by then a

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Speaker 1: powerful senator and then a Vice president. As rumors of

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Speaker 1: ST's schemes began to swirl, a federal investigator named Henry

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Speaker 1: Marshall started digging into ST's subsidy fraud operation. He got

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Speaker 1: closer to uncovering the truth, and then in nineteen sixty one,

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Speaker 1: Marshall was found dead on his Texas ranch, five gunshot

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Speaker 1: wounds to the chest. The initial ruling, they called it

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Speaker 1: a suicide. Yeah, you heard me. Who the heck commits

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Speaker 1: suicide by shooting themselves in the chest five times? I

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Speaker 1: think one would be enough. Right. Marshall's friends and family

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Speaker 1: were suspicious, but the authority stuck with the suicide ruling,

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Speaker 1: at least for a while. That is so here's where

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Speaker 1: the LBJ connection comes in. Billy sol EST's himself testified

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Speaker 1: that Henry Marshall had uncovered too much about the money

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Speaker 1: scheme and also about lbj's involvement in it. He claimed LBG,

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Speaker 1: with the help of Malcolm Wallace, selbj's right hand man,

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Speaker 1: ordered Marshall's murder to keep him from exposing their involvement

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Speaker 1: in the illegal activities. Finally, a grand jury reopened the

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Speaker 1: case in nineteen eighty four, that's over ten years after

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Speaker 1: lbj's death. New evidence made it pretty clear that Marshall's

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Speaker 1: death was in fact a murder. I don't think they

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Speaker 1: needed twenty years to figure that out, though nobody was

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Speaker 1: ever formally charged. So that's the question. Did LBJ have

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Speaker 1: a hand in it? And was Henry Marshall just the

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Speaker 1: tip of the iceberg. Well, it turns out Malcolm Wallace

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Speaker 1: had been linked to violence and LBJ before. In nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty one, he was convicted of killing a local golf

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Speaker 1: pro who had been romantically involved with one of lbja's sisters.

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Speaker 1: He was convicted of murder, but was given a ridiculously

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Speaker 1: lenient sentence. He got just five years probation, no prison time.

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Speaker 1: How did that happen? Some think it was thanks to

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Speaker 1: his powerful connections to Lyndon Johnson. Wallace continued his tight

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Speaker 1: knit relationship with LBJ for years, and his name comes

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Speaker 1: up in another accusation involving the murder of President John F. Kennedy.

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Speaker 1: It's hotly debated, but there are folks who think LBJ,

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Speaker 1: in his intense ambition to become president, played a key

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Speaker 1: role in JFK's assassination. The theory is that by nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty three, LBJ, as vice president had little power, and

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Speaker 1: there were rumors that Kennedy was going to drop him

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Speaker 1: from the ticket in his upcoming nineteen sixty four reelection bid.

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Speaker 1: Could it be that Johnson, with the help of people

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Speaker 1: like Malcolm Wallace, conspired to have Kennedy removed permanently. Some

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Speaker 1: believe that Wallace's fingerprints were found on boxes in the

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Speaker 1: Texas school book Depository, where, of course, Lee Harvey Oswald

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Speaker 1: took him at JFK. It was all just speculation, though,

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Speaker 1: and Billy Solesti's eventually went to prison just for fraud.

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Speaker 1: While behind bars, he claimed LBJ had been involved in

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Speaker 1: criminal activities for years, profiting from the fraud and involved

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Speaker 1: in at least eight murders to cover it all up.

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Speaker 1: True or not, it's a reminder of how far people

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Speaker 1: will go to protect their political survival. After all, LBJ

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Speaker 1: was known to crave power, and his history has repeatedly

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Speaker 1: shown us power can be a dangerous thing. So once again,

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Speaker 1: as we learn from Spider Man, with great power comes

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Speaker 1: great responsibility. Hope you're enjoying the Backstory with Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: Follow or subscribe for free to get new episodes delivered automatically,

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Speaker 1: and feel free to dm me if you have a

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Speaker 1: story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty

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Speaker 1: Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis

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Speaker 1: Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser.

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Speaker 1: Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday

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Speaker 1: and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with

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Speaker 1: comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty

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Speaker 1: Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening

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Speaker 1: to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history

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Speaker 1: you didn't know you needed to know.