Vintage 1960s
Scandals
The Billie Sol Estes
Scandal
Billie Sol Estes ( born January 10, 1925, in Clyde, Texas) was a flamboyant Texan who became one of the most notorious men in
America. He was best known for his
involvement in a business fraud scandal that complicated his ties to friend and
future U.S. President Lyndon Johnson.
Estes demonstrated a natural talent for business at an early
age. At 13 he received a lamb as a gift, sold its wool for $5, bought another
lamb, and went into business. At 15, he sold 100 sheep for $3,000. He borrowed
$3,500 more from a bank, bought government surplus grain, and sold it for a big
profit. By 18, he had $38,000. He served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II.
Billie Sol Estes married Patsy "Mimi" on July,1 946.
In the late 1950s, Estes was heavily involved in the Texas anhydrous ammonia business. He made mortgages on nonexistent
ammonia tanks by convincing local farmers to purchase them on credit, sight
unseen, and leasing them from the farmers for the same amount as the mortgage
payments. He used the fraudulent mortgage holdings to obtain loans from banks
outside Texas who were unable to easily check on the tanks.
He worked out a method to purchase large numbers of cotton
allotments, by dealing with farmers who had been dispossessed of land through
eminent domain. Estes had purchased the cotton allotments with the lease fees.
However, because the original sale and mortgage were a pretext rather than a
genuine sale, it was illegal to transfer the cotton allotments this way. Estes,
a smooth talker, convinced many of his fellow members of the Church of Christ to
join in.
In 1962, word got out that Estes had paid off four Agriculture
officials for grain storage contracts. President Kennedy ordered the Justice Department and FBI to open
investigations into Estes' activities and determine if Secretary of
Agriculture Orville L. Freeman had been "compromised"
(Freeman was cleared). Congress conducted hearings on Estes' business
dealings, including some that led to Vice President Johnson, a long-time
associate of Estes.
In 1963 Estes was tried and convicted on charges related to the
fraudulent ammonia tank mortgages on both federal and state charges and was
sentenced to 24 years in prison. His state conviction was overturned in 1965.
His federal appeal hinged upon the alleged impossibility of a fair trial due to
the presence of television cameras and broadcast journalists in the courtroom.
Estes was paroled in 1971. Eight years later, he was again convicted on other
fraud charges and served four more years.
Oscar Griffin, Jr. the journalist who
uncovered the storage tank scandal, later received the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for his articles for a weekly newspaper in Pecos, Texas.
New charges were brought against him in 1979, he was convicted of
mail fraud and conspiracy to conceal assets from the Internal Revenue Service.
He was freed a second time in 1983.
One of the stranger episodes involved the death of an Agriculture
Department official who was investigating Estes just before he was accused in
the fertilizer tank case. The 1961 death of Henry Marshall was initially ruled
a suicide even though he had five bullet wounds. But in 1984, Estes told a
grand jury that Johnson had ordered the official killed to prevent him from
exposing Estes’ fraudulent business dealings and ties with the vice president.
The prosecutor who conducted the grand jury investigation said there was no
corroboration of Estes’ allegations.
In 2003, Estes co-wrote a book published in France that linked Johnson
to Kennedy’s assassination, an allegation
rejected by prominent historians, Johnson aides, and family members.
While he admitted to being a swindler, Estes also portrayed
himself as a “kind of Robin Hood” and hoped to be remembered for using his
money to feed and educate the poor. He was an advocate of school integration in
Texas long before it was fashionable.
Estes died in his sleep at his home
in DeCordova, Texas on May 14, 2013, at the
age of 88. Estes’ wife Patsy died in 2000.
