WEBVTT - Campaign To Destroy King [12] 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to the MLK Tapes, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:08.240 Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:12.000 are solely those of the podcast author for individuals participating 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:15.280 in the podcast, and do not represent those of iHeartMedia, 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:20.079 Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:27.200 Hl Hunt was a Illinois farm boy who came down 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:30.880 the Mississippi River as a gambler and became the world's 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:33.879 richest man in oil and along the way. He had 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:38.360 three families, two of which he started in secret. Well 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:43.600 he was still living with and married to his first wife. 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:46.880 We're talking to author Harry Hurt, whose book Texas Rich 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:50.360 is an in depth portrait of hl Hunt, a man 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.640 whose extraordinary fortune came out of the ground, liquid and black. 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:56.920 Hunt was an unusual person in that he was happy 0:00:56.920 --> 0:00:59.680 to spend his wealth on political goals, but he didn't 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:01.800 feel the need to spend it on himself. 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:05.759 He drove an old car. He drove himself to work 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:09.240 as he posed having a chauffeur. He took his lunch 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:13.720 to work in a brown paper bag. He didn't adorn 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:20.240 himself with jewelry and fancy clothes. And that sort of thing. 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.200 Beyond those for his families and as many female partners. 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:28.120 Hunt's passions extended into the social and political fabric around him. 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.880 He was against government rules of any kind and government 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:36.440 aid of any kind. He even opposed private charity. Hunt 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:39.200 didn't believe in one man, one vote. He thought the 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:41.800 number of votes you cast should be determined by how 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:44.520 much you pay in taxes. He was opposed to the 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:49.160 United Nations, the War on poverty and social security. He 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.560 didn't like President Kennedy, and he really really didn't like 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:53.400 Martin Luther King. 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:59.680 I call the Union Hall, I says about of life 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.520 and day. Yeah, I said, I thank these people are 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:04.000 planning to kill doctor King. 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.639 The authorities were parade. Oh, we found a gun that 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:12.920 James o'ray bought in Birmingham that killed doctor King. Except 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:15.200 it wasn't the gun that killed doctor King. 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:23.240 James Lray was a pawn for the official story. 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:24.080 From My Heart Radio and Tender for TV. 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:29.360 The plan was to get King to the city because 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:32.000 they wanted it handled in Memphis where Daddy and then 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:32.640 could handle it. 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:35.560 And I've lived with it so long that my year, 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:37.440 and they scared for me. 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:40.240 The Lord told me not the word. 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:42.480 I've been wanting to tell it all my life. 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:54.880 I'm Bill Clayburgh and this is the MLK tapes. After 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:57.280 he staked his claim and made his fortune and oil, 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:01.800 Haroldson Lafayette Hunt moved Dallas, where he took ten acres 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:05.200 overlooking a nearby lake. And for whatever it said about him, 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:08.600 he built a house that mimicked every detail of the 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:09.800 House of George Washington. 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:15.320 His house in Dallas was made to look like a 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:20.080 replica of Mount Vernon in Virginia to Washington, the George 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:25.200 Washington Estate. And that is about as lavish as a god. 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:30.240 And that's not a particularly ornate structure. It looks almost 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:31.520 like a toy house. 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:34.960 And just in case someone didn't recognize it, the place 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.080 was called Mount Vernon. And when Hunt and his wife 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:41.400 Ruth moved in, they were approached by local charities, as 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.240 were all the newly wealthy families in Dallas, and. 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:45.720 There were a good number of them. 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:49.960 The petitioners would usually come away with some easily afforded contribution, 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:52.560 which made everyone feel good as though they had all 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:56.280 done their part, But to their utter shock, Hunt refused 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:56.600 to give. 0:03:57.280 --> 0:03:58.120 He didn't believe in it. 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:02.119 He said, thought it made people week. This cost him 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.520 and Ruth some social standing in Dallas, but he didn't care. 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:08.320 People should learn to stand up on their own, as 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:08.880 he had done. 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:09.720 He would say. 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:14.200 Author Harry Hurt found this attitude a touch hypocritical. 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:19.200 You know, I think that there are pieces of an 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:25.280 American myth of the rugged individual who pulled himself up 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:30.320 by his bootstraps. And I don't need help from anybody. 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:34.600 And you shouldn't need help either. And your problem if 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:39.640 you're struggling financially or in some other ways, because you 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:43.360 don't work hard enough. So it's this kind of puritan 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:47.839 work ethic sort of stuff. There is embedded in that, 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.359 of course, a great deal of hypocrisy. I mean, for 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:56.000 one thing, he, like everyone else in the oil business 0:04:56.080 --> 0:05:02.920 in that era, benefited from government tax structures which included 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:07.880 the oil depletion allowance and intake right off for intangible 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:11.400 drilling costs, so that you know, he would say, well, 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.160 I don't need any help from the government. Well, you 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.279 get help from the government. You get big tax breaks 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:18.560 for the government. 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.880 Considering the wealthy, commanded Hunt led a relatively simple life, 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:28.360 and in that respect he wasn't a phony. He didn't 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.120 own a yacht or a house on the riviera, or 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:34.080 even a fancy car. He didn't take vacations. 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:40.400 I guess he harkened to a simpler time in America 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:45.320 where you didn't have those kind of luxuries commonly. 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:46.960 And he had this. 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:50.960 Sort of ethos with his third wife of being just 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:56.240 playing folks, you know, regular people, And so that was 0:05:56.279 --> 0:06:00.000 his sort of ethos. 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.080 Hunt wasn't just plain folks when it came to his 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:03.120 opposition to John F. 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:03.600 Kennedy. 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:07.320 As Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson moved toward their showdown at 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.479 the nineteen sixty convention in Los Angeles, Hunt thought to 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.640 put his thumb on the scale. At that time, the 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.839 largest Protestant church in America was the First Baptist Church 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:20.480 of Dallas, with some twenty five thousand members, including Hunt 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.720 and his wife Ruth. The leader of that church was W. A. Criswell, 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.599 a man with strident political views often referred to as 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.920 the father of the religious right. As a Democratic convention approached, 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:36.080 Griswell gave a rousing sermon where he said that Kennedy 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:39.160 was unfit to be president because he was a Roman Catholic. 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:43.120 Roman Catholicism is not a religion, he said, it's a 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:44.320 political tyranny. 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:45.400 If John F. 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:48.880 Kennedy is elected, religious liberty will die in America. 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:51.720 Hunt liked this sermon. 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:54.880 So he had it reproduced and sent anonymously to two 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:59.400 hundred thousand Protestant ministers and community leaders across the country 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:02.440 with the hope that they would reject Kennedy and tell 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:06.200 their congregations or friends to do the same. As to 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:08.840 its effect, this effort was too late to derail the 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:12.560 Kennedy campaign, which won the nomination in LA on the 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:16.720 first vote, but it did demonstrate Hunt's willingness to be 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:20.720 a behind the scenes player in national politics again. 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:22.880 Author Harry Hurt. 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:29.040 He was for a McCarthys right wing vision of America 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:35.960 in the fifties, and he had radio programs that got 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:39.800 to be I think on five hundred stations between something 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:47.000 called Fax Forum and a successor Lifeline that were basically 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:53.240 the four runners of Fox News and Newsmax, except that 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:57.600 you know they were privately funded by him, and they 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:01.960 were essentially fake news. Now, you can dismiss it on 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:06.280 one level, but the equal fact of the matter is 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:08.520 that people bought into it and drank the. 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:12.480 Kule In Hunt's world and in that of many others 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.920 back then, the great satan in the universe was communism, 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.360 which had to be fought in every venue. For example, 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:21.920 if you thought that the United Nations was a good thing, 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:25.080 you were probably a communist, or at least willing to 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:28.560 do their work they had termed for people like you. 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:33.319 You were a fellow traveler, or worse, a pinko Lifeline 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:37.040 gave a daily fifteen minute talk on the evils of communism, 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.520 or how certain political figures like Kennedy and King were 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:44.320 bringing the dreaded disease to your very door. This is 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:46.959 what Hunt himself had to say about it, and you 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:49.400 might notice who he says is most to blame. 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:55.960 The land should be drawn between those who love liberty 0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:02.040 and our far freedom and those who are in favor 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:06.160 of communism. And I am quite generally in favor of 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:15.520 anyone that is fighting communism. But the communication media rather 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:25.079 is owned and controlled eighty five percent by the opposition. 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:35.480 The newspapers, radio, TV stations, networks are largely in the hands, 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:37.440 we'll say the enemy. 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:42.720 As part of his crusade to fight against a press 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.840 that was soft on communism, Hunt began what was called 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:49.920 the Youth Freedom Speakers, though it never got much beyond Dallas. 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:52.760 In its conception, there were to be thousands of young 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:56.080 people all across the nation who, like Paul Revere, would 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:59.160 spread the alarm by giving fifteen minute talks to roadery 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:03.520 clubs groups on the hidden dangers of communism. 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.320 Many people in the United States really don't believe that 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:10.760 communism is a serious threat, while these people are in 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:14.440 for a big shock because the Communists have every intention 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:17.760 of doing exactly what they've said they'll do, and they 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:21.200 do not hesitate to use force and violence any time 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:23.400 they think that it will further their calls. 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:27.640 In the nineteen fifties and sixties, the red scare was 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:31.400 on better Dead than Red, was a right wing slogan 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:34.439 with enough true believers that it might be the acceptable 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.199 subject for a debate in a high school civics class. 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.880 In the military, there was a vocal faction that wanted 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:44.000 to launch a first strike against the Russians, and Kennedy's 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:46.640 choices not to invade Cuba or to pull back from 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:50.600 Vietnam were not popular with many people, including Hunt, who 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:54.120 regularly attacked Kennedy as well as King on his Lifeline 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:58.680 radio program. On the fateful morning in November, when the 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.840 President and First Lady would parade in an open car 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:07.319 through downtown Dallas, the local radio station KPCN broadcast the 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.760 latest from Lifeline, part of which we will read here. 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:15.000 When communism comes to America, you will not be able 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:19.360 to celebrate Independence Day, Memorial Day, or Labor Day. You 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:21.960 would not be able to celebrate Thanksgiving as we know it, 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:25.920 thanking the Lord for his blessings and fruitful harvest. You 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:28.400 would not be able to celebrate any holiday of freedom. 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:30.840 Never again would you be able to go off on 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:34.439 a hunting trip with friends. Private ownership and private use 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:36.880 of firearms would be strictly forbidden. 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:00.520 Back in the nineteen sixties, Hunt and Lloyd a young 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:03.520 lawyer named John Currington to be his right hand man 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:08.080 what might be called a fixer. Today, Currington is still alive, 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:10.680 still an attorney in the state of Texas, and he 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:14.200 is also a rancher who, at age ninety three, still 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:17.439 rides a horse and presides over cattle. And he has 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:19.839 come forward to share with us his memories of things 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.960 he witnessed and things he did while in the employ 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.880 of H. L. Hunt, and particularly those relating to the 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:31.720 murder of Martin Luther King. Curington was an East Texas 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.520 country boy. He had a quick mind and did well 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:37.680 at SMU, where he got his law degree. He served 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:39.960 in Korea during the war, where he said it was 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:43.040 so cold that the socks froze to his feet. When 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:45.680 Currington got out of the army, he took his first 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:49.000 ever paying job at the Hunt Oil Company, keeping track 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:52.120 of the oil leases that were presiding over a river 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.120 of money. He had been on the job a couple 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.400 of years when he received a message that mister Hunt 0:12:58.720 --> 0:12:59.760 wanted to see him. 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:04.160 There were several Hunts there in the company, but when 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:06.840 the name mister Hunt was used, you knew it was 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.320 h Old Hunt. And although I had worked for a 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:13.400 Hunt Old Company for several years, part of that call 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:16.679 I had never met mister Hunt, never talked to him. 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:20.439 I immediately interpreted that call as some kind of an 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.600 office prank. I didn't want to go, but I knew 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:26.000 I had enough sensor Oh I had to go. 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.480 So, not being able to imagine anything good coming out 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:33.720 of this occasion, Carrington took the elevator up to the 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:37.560 seventh floor, where Hunt had his office. The first person 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:40.079 he encountered was mister Hunt's secretary. 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:45.400 She just motioned me on end, and Miss Hunt didn't 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:48.640 introduce himself or ask about my health or what I 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:53.040 thought about, no political race. He just stated that he 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:55.720 had been told that I had a reputation of getting 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:58.600 some things done, and he wanted me to start working 0:13:58.679 --> 0:13:59.640 directly for him. 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:02.079 And that was that. 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.440 Curington was instantly moved to the seventh floor of the 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:08.920 Mercantile Bank building, where he began to work for H. L. 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:09.360 Hunt. 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.320 I was given an office immediately next to his, and 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:18.480 the door was normally open between the two of us, 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:21.360 and if he wasn't open, he had a buzzer on 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:24.720 his desk that he could push, and I could answer 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:26.600 that buzzer within a matter of seconds. 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.040 Turington was a quick learner, and he sensed that Hunt 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:33.400 was unlike any person he had ever met. 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:34.760 Right away. 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.920 He understood that he was not to speak unless spoken to. 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:42.840 He was not to offer an uninvited thought, ever, and 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:45.840 that included saying good morning. In Hunt's way of thinking, 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:47.800 such a greeting was a waste of time. 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.080 I never exchanged any pleasant trees with mister Hunt. I 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.960 never asked him out his hells. I never said good morning. 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.200 I'd never asked him if he'd enjoyed the football game. 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:02.280 I had no personal contact relationship with him, and I 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:05.600 think Miss Hunt appreciated that he had no interest in 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:09.160 my background or what I was doing. His only interest 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:11.600 was what he wanted to do and how he wanted 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:12.120 it done. 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:15.560 And Hunt had a lot of things he wanted. His 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:18.560 mind was full of them, and many of those ideas 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:20.880 came to him at odd hours. 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:23.520 As far as I know, he only slept for or 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:27.160 four hours a night. He was up late at night, 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:30.760 up early of the morning, and he had a forever 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.480 idea that I might have or you might have. Miss 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:37.080 Hunt would have a hundred ideas on any different subject. 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:40.680 I had standard orders. I had to call him at 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:44.200 six o'clock am every morning and at ten o'clock pm 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:47.480 every night, and even if we'd talked at nine thirty 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:51.000 pm at night, I'd still call him at ten pm. 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:55.040 Given those responsibilities, one might say that Carrington had a 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:58.080 sixteen hour a day job, but it was worse than that. 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.240 He was required to have a telephone next to his bed, 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.560 and most nights Hunt would call at some point with 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:05.920 something that was on his mind. 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:10.960 I don't ever recall not receiving a telephone call from 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.480 miss Hunt during the wee hours of the night, and 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:17.400 I'm talking anywhere from eight thirty, nine, thirty ten one, 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:21.320 or two o'clock the next morning there. But he never 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:24.560 made any come in as thank you for answering the phone. 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:27.200 I hope I didn't work you up, but I have 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:31.320 a question. He went directly into a question, and some 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:35.560 of his questions just defied the interpretation of what a 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:37.240 reasonable prudent man might know. 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.400 As mister Hunt's right hand, Currington would manage a wide 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:45.880 variety of things. He handled squabbles between the members of 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:49.040 Hunt's three families. He kept track of all the deals 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.880 on the five hundred radio stations that carried Hunt's Lifeline program. 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:56.360 He might carry large amounts of cash from one city 0:16:56.400 --> 0:17:00.480 to another, seventy thousand dollars or two hundred thousand, or 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.080 even a million, and then hand the money to some 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:06.919 person for a purpose he wasn't privy to. As diverse 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:09.879 and strange as they were, these stories rang true to me. 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:12.520 But there is one piece of Currington's account that I 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:17.520 absolutely don't believe. Carrington says, that whenever he and mister 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.800 Hunt flew in a commercial airplane, which they did from 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:24.919 time to time, they always flew in coach, never in 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:29.480 first class. Hunt wouldn't spring for the extra dollars. Remember, 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.560 Hunt is the richest man in America and he flies 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:38.800 in coach. Carrington swears it is true. H. L. Hunt 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:42.280 didn't drink and didn't smoke. He stayed away from white flour, 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:45.680 white bread, and white sugar. And the bread he did 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.040 eat had to come from a certain county in Texas 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:50.720 which had some mineral in the soil that Hunt felt 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:55.720 was important. But Hunt had one huge bad habit. He 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:58.880 loved to gambell. He loved to bet on horses and 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:02.240 football games, and most of all, he loved to play 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:05.760 in high stakes poker games. He would fly across the 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:07.840 country with John Kirrrington and Coach. 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:09.880 We were asked to believe so that. 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:12.320 Hunt could play in a game of poker where hundreds 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:14.560 of thousands of dollars would change hands. 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:20.199 Mister Hunt and I we normally always stay that the 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.520 waldolph A story when we were there in New York, 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:27.080 and quite frequently that's where the poker games would occur. 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:32.000 During the games Carrington would be stationed nearby, and if 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:34.680 Hunt were losing, he would be sent downtown to pick 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:37.919 up more money, like maybe eighty grand, which was a 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:41.159 lot of money back then, And this happened often enough 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.040 that Carrington got to know the president of the bank. 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:47.200 Miss Hunt had a bank account in New York. I 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:51.200 was called a Handover bank, and if my memory shirts 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.160 MC correct, the fellow named Adolph Houser was the president 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:58.360 of it. And over the course of years I became 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:02.920 pretty well acquainted with mister Houser. And when Miss Hunt 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:06.000 was in a big card game, if money was needed, 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:10.560 I would catch a subway from the Waldorfer Story down 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:13.639 to Wall Street, pick up the money, put it in 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:17.840 my pockets, and go back. But I had instruction Miss 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:20.920 Hunt not to take a taxi to pick that money up, 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:24.959 because taxis rides in New York in were about seventy 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:28.480 five or eighty cents a trip, so I was instructed 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:30.840 to take the subway as it was a little cheaper 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:31.920 mode of transportation. 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:36.359 In nineteen sixty three, Hunt and Keirrrington would spend a 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.040 hunk of time in New York. Time that had nothing 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:41.800 to do with poker. It had to do with an 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:43.920 idea that came to Hunt in the middle of the night. 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:46.760 One they had to do with the World's Fair, which 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:49.159 was set to open in New York in the summer 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:50.560 of nineteen sixty four. 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:57.879 For many years we always had a display at State 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:00.800 Ferry there in Dallas for the State of Texas. There 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:03.720 every year, we had a pretty leverage set up. We 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:08.040 had free drinks for people of cool area chairs. But 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:12.440 he used it primarily to distribute material on his Lifeline program. 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:15.439 So he came up with the idea that if it 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:19.080 worked in Dallas at the State Fair, then it would 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:21.879 work in New York at the New York's Worldfare, but 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.360 on a much bigger scale, and it would be used 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:31.040 as a money making venture for amusement rides and concession stands. 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:35.439 Plus it would be a distribution center for his Lifeline 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:41.439 radio program material and his Lifeline TV material. And negotiations 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:45.120 were made and a fellow named Robert Moses. He lets 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:48.479 you know very promptly when meeting him that he was 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:52.840 a top dog and he didn't expect any conversation from 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:53.680 anybody else. 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:58.960 For decades, Robert Moses had been the most powerful man 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:01.879 in the state of New York. He wasn't mayor, he 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:05.399 wasn't governor. He was the chairman of the Triburial Bridge 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.840 and Tunnel Authority, along with a dozen other important positions, 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:11.520 including President of the New York World's Fair. 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:13.600 When it came to building. 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:17.480 Bridges, highways, and parks, Moses had the final say. So 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:19.600 when the richest man in America came to him with 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:23.040 a proposal, he let that man know who was boss. 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:26.600 But they did come to an agreement on a rather 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:27.320 large deal. 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:32.560 Negotiations were made to lease a multi acre of state 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:36.480 there at the World Fair. We would put amusement rides 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:40.520 throughout our area that we were going to operate, plus 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:44.560 there would be numerous concession stands, and in theory it 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:48.480 would have been a great money making ideal. And immediately 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:51.000 after we signed a contract for the land at the 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:55.520 World's Fair, I went to Germany and bought several different 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:59.280 kind of amusement rides, and they were expensive rides. Most 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:02.200 of those rides came out of Germany and they were 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:04.159 shipped from Germany to New York. 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:08.560 So, after the deal was signed and big money had 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:12.280 been spent on the rides and attractions, Moses called hunt 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.280 and Carrington back to his office. 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:17.800 At that time, we thought we were doing a great 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:20.000 job of what we were supposed to do, and it 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:23.879 was sort of patting ourselves on the back. But Robert 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:27.640 Moses walked in and without any great fanfare, he said 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:30.399 a decision had been made that he was going to 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:35.919 cancel mister Hunt's contract for his amusement rides, and on 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:38.080 the grounds that he felt like it was going to 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:43.840 be outlet for mister propaganda material from his Lifeline program. 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:47.640 In their contract, Moses had reserved the right to cancel 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:49.840 if he felt it was in the best interests of 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:53.840 the fair itself, and Hunt had no legal recourse, but 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:57.000 he correctly suspected that this was some sort of payback 0:22:57.040 --> 0:22:59.359 for the nasty campaign Hunt had run against. 0:22:59.400 --> 0:22:59.760 President. 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:03.680 Hunt called Vice President Lyndon Johnson to see if he 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:07.440 could intervene, but Johnson said that the decision had been 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:08.560 made above him. 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:10.200 And that he could do nothing about it. 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:14.200 From that moment, Miss Trunt was pretty well aware that 0:23:14.640 --> 0:23:17.919 Lyndon Johnson was going to be dropped from the ticket 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:21.760 in nineteen sixty four, that Lyndon Johnson was losing his 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:25.359 power and influence. Every day after we were kicked out 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:27.720 of the World Fair. We probably stated in New York 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:31.480 another thirty days to wind up a lot of activities. 0:23:31.880 --> 0:23:35.160 But on the way back to flying back to Dallas 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:39.119 from New York, Miss Hunt and I shall ever engaged 0:23:39.160 --> 0:23:43.320 in personal conversations. We would fly side beside on an 0:23:43.359 --> 0:23:46.080 airplane if he wanted to say something. I listened, but 0:23:46.240 --> 0:23:50.720 I never volunteered any statements there. But on this particular trip, 0:23:51.000 --> 0:23:53.879